From Hope to Higher Ground: on Immigration

Path to citizenship if illegals admit guilt & pay fine

What we cannot do is allow our laws to be flagrantly broken, acting as if the economic benefits to consumers justify their utter disregard for not only our laws, but potentially our security. In the case of immigration, our laws are clearly out of sync with the economic realities of our global marketplace. It would be sheer folly to attempt to suddenly impose strict enforcement of existing laws, round up 12 million people, march them across the border, and expect them to stay.

What does make sense is a revision of our laws, one giving those here illegally a process through which they pay a reasonable fine in admission of their guilt for the past infraction of violating our border laws and agree to adhere to a pathway toward legal status and citizenship. In exchange, our government gains the capacity to know who is here, why they are here, where they are, and whether they carry a communicable disease. But much of the debate has become mired more in definitions than in a real solution.

Source: From Hope to Higher Ground, by Mike Huckabee, p.117-118 Jan 4, 2007

The above quotations are from From Hope to Higher Ground 12 STOPs to Restoring America's Greatness, by Mike Huckabee, Jan. 2007. Click here for definitions & background information on Immigration. Click here for other issues (main summary page). Click here for more quotes by Mike Huckabee on Immigration.
*Candidates and political leaders on Immigration:*
*Incoming Obama Administration:* Pres.:Sen.Barack Obama V.P.:Sen.Joe Biden State:Hillary Clinton Staff:Rahm Emanuel Treas.:Tim Geithner DoD:Robert Gates A.G.:Eric Holder DHS:Janet Napolitano DoC:Bill Richardson	*Outgoing Bush Administration:* Pres.:George Bush V.P.:Dick Cheney A.G.:John Ashcroft(2005) DEA:Asa Hutchinson(2005) USDA:Mike Johanns(2007) EPA:Mike Leavitt HUD:Mel Martinez(2003) State:Colin Powell(2005) State:Condoleezza Rice HHS:Tommy Thompson(2005)	*2008 Presidential contenders:* AIP: Frank McEnulty Constitution: Chuck Baldwin GOP: Sen.John McCain GOP VP: Gov.Sarah Palin Green: Rep.Cynthia McKinney Independent: Ralph Nader Liberation: Gloria La Riva Libertarian: Rep.Bob Barr NAIP: Amb.Alan Keyes Socialist: Brian Moore
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