One of the big issues in this election is illegal immigration with most Republicans favoring strict enforcement, enhanced border security (”the fence,” biometric identification documents, augmentation of the Border Patrol, etc.), and no immigration policy or reform that could be considered “amnesty” and, as such, encourage further illegal immigration.   Actually, these ideas form the cornerstone of Governor Huckabee’s immigration policy.

As if on cue, Mitt, Senator McCain, Rudy and their “spin-meisters” are endlessly repeating their anti-Huckabee talking points when it comes to immigration.  This would be fair enough - if based on the issues with an honest and complete review of a candidate’s record.  However, one of the most-often repeated items mentioned when attacking Governor Huckabee on his immigration policy record goes something like this: “Not only did Mike support in-state tuition for the children of illegal immigrants, he wanted to give them scholarships!  And now he’s denying he ever did it!”

Mitt has devoted an entire “attack page” on his campaign’s website to this topic.  In effect, Mr. Romney is trying to manufacture a scandal by word parsing that would make the Clintons proud.  Needless to say, on the surface, this is a political “bomb” with any voters who have children, plan to have children, or have any family member who may require financial help as they pursue higher education.  These voters are not going to be receptive to hearing Governor Huckabee’s ideas and positions if they are convinced that he ”supported special tuition breaks for illegals.” (emphasis ours) as mentioned on the Romney attack page.  Further, if allowed to continue and unchallenged, Mike’s opponents will frame his past policy as pandering to the Latino vote at taxpayer expense and then lying about it. 

However, if the in-state tuition issue and Mike’s record are examined, or even just briefly thought about objectively; it becomes clear that the Governor’s record is a fine example of the decision making that kept him in office for over 10 years - leaving office with one of the highest approval ratings of any outgoing governor in the nation.  As Mike’s grassroots supporters, we must able to quickly and clearly respond to these attacks against Mike on the emotional issue of immigration.  As his Hispanic grassroots supporters, there will be more attention paid to what we say on this subject.  Fortunately, in our South Florida group we have a number of members who have lived in Arkansas, or the surrounding states, when this controversy was playing itself out in Arkansas during the Huckabee administration. This provides us a perspective that is not dependent on the mainstream media, or just what we can find when “Googling” the issue.  (ABC News This Week video)

Mike was the Arkansas governor from July 15, 1996 - January 9, 2007.  (He was elevated to the governorship from the Lieutenant Governor’s office when the then Democratic Governor Jim Guy Tucker resigned due to a case that ended in a conviction in federal court stemming out of the Whitewater scandal.  He was then subsequently elected twice in a state dominated by the Democratic Party since Civil War reconstruction.  On both occasions, he beat the “Clinton machine” that put Bill and Hillary in the Arkansas Governor’s mansion.  That should settle the issue of Mike’s “electability,” but that’s a topic for another blog post.)  Bill Clinton (and Monica Lewinsky, from time to time) was in the Oval Office from January 20, 1993 - January 20, 2001.  President Clinton had been in office more than 3 years before Governor Huckabee took office.  Plenty of time to enforce the border - if it were priority for his administration.  He was certainly aware of the growing numbers of undocumented workers entering Arkansas to work in the poultry, lumber, agricultural, light manufacturing, and other industries.  Leading up to Governor Huckabee’s tenure as the state’s chief executive, rural Arkansas was being flooded with a massive wave of predominantly Mexican workers.  Small towns would watch their populations grow from 1-2% Hispanic to, in some cases, more than 30%.  Exact numbers are hard to come by because most undocumented immigrants are hesitant to include themselves in census and market surveys.  Picturesque small southern courthouses, the center of activity for many small towns, would have designated “Mexican Days” when trucks would arrive carrying the products and produce from Mexico and Texas to serve the tastes of the growing Mexican population.  Small town school systems were thrust into teaching English as Second Language (ESL) in a matter of a few years, some cases months.  Surprisingly, in spite of the Hollywood image of the South as being intolerant and violently racist, there were not as many problems as one might expect from such a rapid integration of two cultures that do not share a common language.

The Clinton administration’s refusal to enforce the border set the stage for Governor Huckabee’s policy on in-state tuition.  Although to be fair, lax border enforcement has been the de facto policy of the United States for the last century.   Then, the policy wonks of Clinton administration began to take an interest in the growing illegal immigrant population.  This, partly, was prompted by a desire to insure that Latino voters would, one day, become a reliable Democratic voting bloc.

Therefore, Governor Huckabee with a not-so-cooperative Democratic state legislature faced federal requirements to educate the children of illegal immigrants, “K through 12.”   Of course, the education of children is always a laudable goal, but when faced with the necessity to balance a budget and crushing entitlement program obligations, some very difficult choices had to be made.  The education that was (and still is) provided to these children represents a precious investment of taxpayer resources in a state like Arkansas.   Once that education - at the insistence of the federal government - is provided over a period of years to the children of illegal immigrants, is the State of Arkansas supposed to say: “Nice knowin’ ya!  Although you are some of our educational system’s best students, you cannot improve your station in life, pay more taxes, be productive and contribute to the society that has paid so much for your education?”  Not offering these students opportunities to advance is to waste of the precious resources that were used to educate them.  Remember, we’re not talking criminal illegal aliens that almost all of us agree should be deported in the most expeditious manner permitted by law.  We’re talking about college-bound, vo-tech school-bound, university-bound students whose preparatory education the taxpayers have already paid in full.  Should the governor of a financially-strapped state ignore the investment by his own constituents in the future of these children in some futile attempt to demonstrate the failure of border enforcement by federal government?  We all know that our border security policies for our southern border have been largely a failure for decades.  Governor Huckabee’s clearly stated border policy is a start along the path to achieving real security and fixing our immigration system and southern border.
The in-state tuition issue was touched upon in an appearance by Governor Huckabee, December 2, 2007, on the Sunday morning ABC News Program This Week hosted by former Clinton advisor George Stephanopoulos.  Interestingly, this is the same program that Mitt Romney cites for his “Fact Check” attack page.  Watch the video linked below and judge for yourself.  Unfortunately, recent coverage has tended to highlight the negative attacks on Governor Huckabee and ignore his record.  Arm yourself with the knowledge of his record and be prepared to respond to these distortions.   (video)

This entry was posted on Monday, January 14th, 2008 at 3:28 am and is filed under Education, Election 2008, Huckabee, Immigration, Republicans, Romney. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.