Thread: Wash Times / ALIPAC: Illegals foes reject nod to Huckabee

Illegals foes reject nod to Huckabee

By Jerry Seper
December 13, 2007

Minuteman co-founder James Gilchrist's endorsement of presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has spurred a backlash among illegal-immigration opponents who say the former Arkansas governor is soft on immigration enforcement.

"Mike Huckabee is pro-amnesty and favors a path to citizenship for illegal aliens currently in the U.S. that would require a lifting of current penalties," said William Gheen, whose 25,000-member Americans for Legal Immigration sent mass mailings yesterday to more than 300 pro-enforcement groups.

"Huckabee has released an immigration plan that contains the deceptive 'touch back' provision that the pushers of amnesty tried on us in Washington this year," he said. "He wants to trick the nation by having illegal aliens leave for a day to pick up new papers at an office set up across the border and then walk right back."

Mr. Gilchrist, whose Minuteman Project turned out about 800 civilian volunteers to guard the Arizona-Mexico border in April 2005, endorsed Mr. Huckabee in Iowa on Tuesday, saying he supported the former governor's immigration policies. He said Mr. Huckabee's immigration plan was most likely to halt "an invasion" of illegal aliens.

But Chris Simcox, who co-founded the Minuteman Project with Mr. Gilchrist and now heads the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, said no national Minuteman group has endorsed Mr. Huckabee, adding that only "one individual Minuteman has personally endorsed him."

"Jim Gilchrist speaks only for Jim Gilchrist. He does not speak for the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, nor is he nationally representative of most patriots in the Minuteman movement, who under no circumstances could ignore the failed record nor endorse the duplicitous plan recently rolled out by candidate Mike Huckabee," Mr. Simcox said.

His Minuteman organization totals more than 10,000 members and has chapters in all 50 states.

Bob Wright, who heads the Patriots' Border Alliance, another Minuteman splinter group, said although Mr. Gilchrist helped move the issue of illegal entry into the U.S. "to it's rightful place on the national stage," his endorsement of Mr. Huckabee "is at best disturbing."

"While I believe it is possible for a professional politician to change his mind on a subject as he becomes more informed, I have serious doubts that is the case with Huckabee," Mr. Wright said. "His past rhetoric about the goals of Minutemen everywhere has been vicious — parroting the tired and discredited foolishness that an American citizen's desire to see the law enforced is somehow racist or xenophobic."

Mr. Huckabee, who apologized to Mr. Gilchrist for not supporting the Minuteman project when it was first formed, said this week that he was honored to receive the endorsement.

"All of us want a policy where people come to this country through the front door, not the back door," he said.

Last week, Mr. Huckabee outlined the "Secure America Plan," a nine-point strategy for immigration enforcement and border security that he said would provide a "tough, equitable and comprehensive approach" to dealing with the nation's immigration crisis.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/ ... 30052/1002

Good; I'm glad this was published. Huckabee was on the Laura Ingraham show this morning and mentioned his Gilchrist endorsement and his "nine-point plan" to once again try to show how "tough" he is on illegal immigration. Laura, to her credit, said this was one person and other MM were horrified at this endorsement. I wished Laura had questioned Huckabee about his touchback scheme though.

Happy to see this article and delighted Simcox and the other MM have not joined in this horrific endorsement of Huckabee.

Michelle Malkin was on the Laura Ingraham show after Huckabee, and hammered Huckabee calling his supposed conversion on illegal immigration one of "pure expediency." They did discuss Huckabee's touchback scheme, with Malkin pointing out how bogus it is; how illegals would have to go back for only an hour or a day and then be allowed right back in. They also hammered on Huckabee's deal with the Mexican consulate in Arkansas, how he basically allowed Mexico to meddle in our internal affairs and our national sovereignty.

Malkin = A+

Originally Posted by Populist

Michelle Malkin was on the Laura Ingraham show after Huckabee, and hammered Huckabee calling his supposed conversion on illegal immigration one of "pure expediency." They did discuss Huckabee's touchback scheme, with Malkin pointing out how bogus it is; how illegals would have to go back for only an hour or a day and then be allowed right back in. They also hammered on Huckabee's deal with the Mexican consulate in Arkansas, how he basically allowed Mexico to meddle in our internal affairs and our national sovereignty.

Malkin = A+

Does anyone know where the audio for this might be? I missed Laura's entire show today.

Originally Posted by zeezil

Does anyone know where the audio for this might be? I missed Laura's entire show today.

http://hotair.com/archives/2007/12/13/a ... aham-show/

We need to get this on Friday's homepage and out to our supporter list.

W

added to the homepage

http://www.alipac.us/article2790.html

Originally Posted by ALIPAC

"Mike Huckabee is pro-amnesty and favors a path to citizenship for illegal aliens currently in the U.S. that would require a lifting of current penalties," said William Gheen, whose 25,000-member Americans for Legal Immigration sent mass mailings yesterday to more than 300 pro-enforcement groups.

...

His Minuteman organization totals more than 10,000 members and has chapters in all 50 states.

ALIPAC has more members than the Minutemen??

WOOOT