Huckabee Set To Roll Out Aggressive Plan To Curb Immigration

The Mike Huckabee campaign is expected to begin rolling out details on Friday of a comprehensive plan designed to curb illegal immigration in the United States, a keystone issue for Republicans in this year’s presidential elections.

The proposal, which campaign officials say he will discuss at length early next week, comes at a time when Huckabee is emerging as a serious contender for the Republican presidential nomination.

Recent polls show him running neck-in-neck with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani nationwide and building a slight lead over longtime frontrunner Mitt Romney in Iowa. One of the stops where he will likely address the issue is Council Bluffs, where he campaigns on Tuesday during a return to the state.

Although Huckabee has expressed concern about illegal immigration in the past, he hasn’t taken the red-meat approach of some of his rivals in talking about ways to slow the flow of immigrants into the country. Remarks he made about his support of a program he endorsed while governor of Arkansas that would have provided tuition breaks for children of illegal immigrants have caused some Republicans to label him soft on the issue.

Huckabee says in an outline of the plan that border security has “reached the level of a national emergency.” His nine-point proposal calls for about $3 billion in spending to beef up border security, giving illegals 120 days to register with the government and then leave the country, plus limiting easy passage through ports of entry for citizens of Mexico and Canada.

The $3 billion in funding would be used to hire 23,000 additional agents, purchase four unmanned surveillance planes, build 700 miles of fence and pay for the installaton of 105 radar and camera towers.The roll-out of the plan is coming a few days earlier than anticipated after bloggers discovered a sketchy outline of the details on the “Mike Huckabee for President” Web site. The outline, which appeared in the Issues section of the Web site was later replaced with a more detailed version.

Although all the Republican candidates have expressed concern about the immigration problem, the most fiery rhetoric has come from Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo and California Rep. Duncan Hunter, who both have failed to catch on in the polls and who have courted the same base of social conservatives that are behind Huckabee’s surge.

One quarter of Iowa Republicans said in a Rasmussen Reports poll last month that immigration reform is their top issue and a strong policy could help Huckabee distance himself from other contenders even more.

In addition to beefing up border security, Huckabee uses the plan to denounce amnesty for illegals and says a bill championed by President Bush and Arizona Sen. John McCain “would have put us on the slippery slope to amnesty for all.” He also plans to crack down on so-called sanctuary cities and states his opposition to drivers’ licenses for illegal aliens. He also promises to aggressively punish employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants. Finally, he states his opposition to open borders between Canada, the United States and Mexico.

“I oppose the economic integration of North America that would create open borders among the United States, Canada, and Mexico.  I will never yield one iota or one inch of our sovereignty,” Huckabee says.

Some Tancredo supporters have said they are attracted to Huckabee’s positions on gay marriage, abortion and to his electability, but have resisted switching allegiances because of dissatisfaction with a lack of specifics about immigration from the former Arkansas governor.

John Hulsizer, a Dubuque pastor who currently supports Tancredo’s campaign, told the Iowa Independent in two separate interviews that he was intrigued with Huckabee but, “I think he’s kind of soft on immigration.” He was unaware of the new Huckabee plan when contacted on Thursday.

Huckabee has come under attack in recent days for his support, while governor of Arkansas, of a plan that would make children of illegal aliens eligible for state-funded college scholarships.
During the CNN / YouTube debate last week, Huckabee was chastised by Romney for supporting the scholarship plan.

“It reminds me of what it’s like talking to liberals in Massachusetts, all right? They have great reasons for taking taxpayer money and using it for things they think are the right thing to do,” Romney said. “Mike, that’s not your money. That’s the taxpayers’ money. And the right thing here is to say to people that are here legally as citizens or legal aliens, we’re going to help you. But if you’re here illegally, then you ought to be able to return home or get in line with everybody else. But illegals are not going to get taxpayer-funded breaks that are better than our own citizens’, those that come from other states or those that come from your state.”

Huckabee responded: “In all due respect, we are a better country than to punish children for what their parents did. We’re a better country than that.”

Some Republicans said last week that Huckabee’s response to Romney demonstrated the sort of compassionate conservatism that the Republican Party has wrestled to embrace in the past. Bob Brownell, the Polk County Supervisor, told the Iowa Independent that Huckabee’s desire to reach out to the downtrodden was one of the factors in his decision to endorse the Baptist minister.

Huckabee promises in his nine-point plan that the 700-mile fence and the surveillance system will be completed by 2010. He says he will have zero tolerance for any efforts to give amnesty to illegal immigrants already in the United States. He also proposes requiring all illegal immigrants to register with the federal government within a 120 days and leave the country.

“Those who register and return to their home country will face no penalty if they later apply to immigrate or visit; those who do not return home will be, when caught, barred from future re-entry for a period of 10 years,” the plan says.
The Huckabee plan would place the onus of fighting illegal immigration on businesses. “Employment is the chief draw for most illegal immigrants and denying them jobs is the centerpiece of an attrition strategy,” according to the plan.

Huckabee says he will institute a universal, mandatory citizenship-verification system to be used during the hiring process and require government agencies to step up efforts to prevent the use of fraudulent Social Security numbers or numbers that don’t match names.

The plan also contends that encouraging passage of a national sales tax to replace the income tax will serve as a valuable economic disincentive to immigrate to the U.S. illegally since most people with false documents don’t pay taxes.

Huckabee would also require that visitors from Mexico and Canada follow the same rules as other foreigners visiting the United States. Current law requires that foreign visitors have their two index fingers scanned and a digital photograph taken as a way to authentic travel documents at any U.S. port of entry. However, citizens of Mexico and Canada with valid passports and/or visas are exempt from the rules.

“Since these countries account for the vast majority of foreigners coming here (85 percent), such a policy clearly violates Congress’ intent in mandating this check-in/check-out system,” Huckabee says.

His administration would also outlaw the use of consular registration cards, also know as  Matricula Consular cards, as acceptable identification because they are allegedly unverifiable and vulnerable to fraud. The cards are issued by the Mexican government to citizens living outside of Mexico as proof of citizenship.

As part of the reform, Huckabee would also discourage dual citizenship by informing foreign governments when their former citizens become naturalized U.S. residents. His administration would also seek to impose civil and/or criminal penalties on American citizens who abuse their dual status.

Finally, Huckabee proposes eliminating the visa lottery system and tightening laws that give admission preference to adult brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens.  At the same time, he wants to increase the number of visas available to highly skilled and highly educated applicants.

He supports improving the “