From: Gary Bauer
Campaign for Working Families

Date: Monday, December 3, 2007

You Be The Judge!

As Mike Huckabee continues to improve in the polls, his positions on the issues are coming under greater scrutiny. Over the last week, a heated debate has broken out between Huckabee and many of the other candidates over the immigration issue, and particularly the question of providing benefits to the children of illegal immigrants.

On Friday, many of the leading groups fighting illegal immigration blasted Huckabee for his position on the issue. While Governor Huckabee now says he is against amnesty and for secure borders, he continues to raise eyebrows with his defense of scholarships and other taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal aliens.

Since the illegal immigration debate will continue to be a big part of the 2008 campaign, and no doubt a key item on the legislative agenda in 2009, as it has been in Congress for the past few years, I want to get your take on the controversy.

The Facts

When he was governor of Arkansas, Huckabee supported legislation allowing illegal immigrants who had attended Arkansas high schools to participate in a scholarship program to attend college. Huckabee lost that debate, and the bill failed. He also strongly opposed an effort by state Senator Jim Holt, also an ordained Southern Baptist minister, to end taxpayer subsidies
for illegal immigrants in Arkansas and to require proof of citizenship in order to register to vote. Huckabee denounced Holt's legislation as "race baiting" and "demagoguery."


\Huckabee's Argument

Governor Huckabee strongly defends the positions he took as governor on aid
to illegals. He argues that denying illegal immigrant students scholarship
money would be punishing children for what their parents have done. He
says, "my soul will not let me" do that. On ABC News this weekend, when
he
was asked whether or not he would support federal scholarships for
illegal
immigrant students, Huckabee said, "I'm not sure..."

Senate Democrats recently proposed the "DREAM Act," which would have
allowed illegal aliens to receive taxpayer subsidized in-state college
tuition rates that out-of-state American citizens cannot get. The
"DREAM
Act," like other recent immigration "reform" efforts, failed to pass due
to
overwhelming public outrage.

One year ago, Huckabee compared America's response to illegal
immigration
to slavery by remarking, "One of the great challenges facing us is that
we
do not commit the same mistakes with our growing Hispanic population
that
we did with African Americans 150 years ago... I think, frankly, the
Lord is
giving us a second chance to do better than we did before."

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