Mike Huckabee presidential campaign, 2016/Immigration

	; ; Former presidential candidate; Mike Huckabee
	Political offices: ; Former Governor of Arkansas; (1996-2007); Former Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas; (1993-1996)
	Huckabee on the issues:
	Taxes • Banking policy • Government regulations • International trade • Budgets • Agricultural subsidies • Federal assistance programs • Foreign affairs • Federalism • Healthcare • Immigration • Education • Abortion • Gay rights
	Republican candidate:
	Donald Trump
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Mike Huckabee suspended his presidential campaign on February 1, 2016.^[1]

This page was current as of the 2016 election.

In a November 11, 2015, interview on the Fox Business Network, Mike Huckabee discussed immigration. He said, “that it’s “not realistic” to deport every illegal immigrant, and that there’s "got to be some kind of process” with a penalty. He also called for securing the border. He said "[W]e have to secure the border. We have to take the economic advantage out of the illegal immigration equation, which is what I think the Fair Tax does, but securing the border means do what we did in San Diego 20 years ago with a double fence, add the personnel and the electronic surveillance. It cut the apprehensions by 95% and crime in San Diego — violent crime went down 54%. So we know what works, let’s do it. As far as the 11 million, I don’t believe in amnesty, but neither do I believe in trying to pretend we’re going to fix that until we first show Americans that we’re serious about securing the border.”^[2]

During a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border on October 10, 2015, Huckabee said he would require the director of Homeland Security to live in the border city of Laredo, Texas, until the border had been secured.^[3]

On August 28, 2015, Huckabee said he would support a law “to abrogate birthright citizenship” because of the growth of birth tourism.^[4]

On July 30, 2015, Huckabee said he would secure the U.S.-Mexico border in less than a year and that border security should come before any other immigration reform.^[5]

In July 2015, Huckabee released a statement saying he would use "all powers of the presidency to deny federal funding to sanctuary cities." Huckabee described sanctuary cities as symptomatic "of President Obama’s broader policy decision to ignore existing laws and issue radical unconstitutional executive orders that provide amnesty to the most dangerous illegal aliens."^[6]

In a 2013 interview, Huckabee suggested he would support Senators Bob Corker (R) and John Hoeven's border security plan to spend $30 billion to build a 700-mile fence and double the number of federal border agents.^[7]^[8]

In his 2007 book, From Hope to Higher Ground, Mike Huckabee wrote, "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."^[9]

In December 2007, during an interview on FOX News Sunday, Huckabee was questioned about why he changed his views on allowing a pathway to citizenship. Huckabee responded, "I don’t think there’s an inconsistency. When I said a pathway, I didn’t say what the pathway was. I now believe that the only thing the American people are going to accept--and, frankly, the only thing that really makes sense--is a pathway that sends people back to the starting point. But this idea of the waiting years — no, I don't agree with that. In fact, look, if we can get a credit card application done within hours, if we can get passports done within days, if we can transact business over the Internet any place in the world within seconds, do a background check instantaneously — it's our government that has failed and is dysfunctional. It shouldn't take years to get a work permit to come here and pick lettuce. So part of the plan that I have is that we seal the borders. You don't have amnesty and sanctuary cities. You do have a pathway that gets you back home. But that pathway to get back here legally doesn't take years."^[10]

In 2007, Huckabee released a comprehensive nine-point immigration enforcement and border security plan that included building a fence, increasing border security, preventing amnesty, enforcing the law on employers, establishing an economic border, empowering local authorities, ensuring document security, discouraging dual citizenship and modernizing the process of legal immigration.^[11]

According to a 2008 profile of Huckabee by the Council on Foreign Relations, he "has advocated prenatal care for pregnant immigrants and has proposed a scholarship program for illegal immigrants who graduate from Arkansas high schools. He also criticized a 2005 federal immigration raid in Arkansas. Huckabee has expressed support for a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants under some conditions."^[12]

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