Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee will visit the U.S.-Mexico border. The former Arkansas Gov. and Fox News host will use the visit to raise his profile on the issue of border security.
(1) “Governor Huckabee will address the media and outline his plan to secure the border within the first year of his presidency,” spokeswoman Alice Stewart told CNN. “The governor has always said that the number one priority in immigration reform is securing the border first.”
Huckabee will be guided by former and presidential candidate congressman Duncan Lee Hunter, whose son Duncan D. Hunter was elected to his seat. Huckabee’s visit follows a successful media campaign to place himself himself at the center of the Kim Davis controversy, rallying support among evangelical Christians.
What can we expect from the candidate when he visits the U.S.-Mexico border?
Building A Border Fence
(2) “Without a secure border, nothing matters,” Mike Huckabee says on his official website, which does not mention deportation. “We have drug cartels running reckless on our southern border, and the Washington establishment wants to reward illegal immigrants with amnesty and citizenship.”
We searched his site using keywords related to deportation, which yielded only one result, in a comment on a post which asked “Will he deport illegals or cause them to self deport?”
Huckabee has not offered details on how exactly the border should be secured, but he has been vocal about the problem.
Sanctuary Cities
Huckabee told the Daily Caller in July of 2015 that sanctuary cities (e.g. as San Francisco, Miami, and New York) are “horrible policies,” and that he would use “all powers of the presidency to deny [them] federal funding.”
(3) “What most people don’t realize is that existing laws provide more than enough leeway for the executive branch to get the illegal immigration crisis under control,” he added.
No To Comprehensive Immigration Reform
(4) “Supporting President Obama's call for a pathway to citizenship is, in effect support for amnesty,” Huckabee wrote on his campaign blog in May of 2015. “I strongly oppose amnesty and government benefits for illegal immigrants who have violated our laws.”
Yes To The Dream Act
Yet Huckabee does support a pathway to citizenship and “amnesty” for Dreamers, illegal immigrant youth who grew up in the U.S. after crossing the border as minors, usually brought by their parents.
(5) “You don't punish a child for something his parents did,” Huckabee said in January of 2015. “I would like that person to become a very generous tax-paying citizen rather than somebody who is going to take taxes away from the rest of us.”
Rhetoric And Tone
Huckabee has tried to portray himself as tough on border security without endorsing or rejecting the controversial rhetoric of Donald Trump.
(6) "I get on my knees every night and thank God I live in a country people are trying to break into, not out of," Huckabee said in response to a question about Donald Trump’s immigration rhetoric from The Hill. "Are there some people who come here with nefarious goals? Yes. But I would never besmirch all the people who come here."
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