Sunday, February 11, 2007
Illegal Immigration - Stephanopoulos Interview
Want to know what Mike Huckabee's position on illegal immigration is? Here's an excerpt from his interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week (Feb. 11, 2007):Stephanopoulos: Let's talk about immigration. I was struck by something in USA Today this morning, a headline that says, "Immigration Becomes KKK Rallying Point." You've said that you believe that there is some racism behind the immigration debate today.
What did you mean by that?
What did you mean by that?
Huckabee: Well, first of all, I didn't mean that everybody who has some anxiety about immigration is a racist. And that was one of those things that suddenly blew up and people said, "Oh, he accused us all of being racists." Absolutely not. There are a lot of people who are concerned. I'm concerned. I'm concerned that our borders are porous and we're allowing people to come in and out without any real check as to who they are, where they're going, why they're here, do they have a communicable disease or a criminal background? We need to know those things.
Stephanopoulos: But you've also said we're going to be judged by how we treat the illegals who are here right now.
Huckabee: We shouldn't have amnesty where we just say, "Fine, everybody's good, we're going to let it go." We should have a process where people can pay the penalties, step up and accept responsibility for not being here legally. But here's the point. The objective is not to be punitive. The objective is to make things right. Right for us. Right for them. And what I have objected to in the past is when we are punishing the children for the laws that maybe their parents have broken. I do have a problem with that.
