THEN GOVERNOR HUCKABEE ON SCHOLARSHIPS ON ILLEGALS: LIES, DECEIT AND MISREPRESENTATION
In the You Tube Debate held last week, Mike Huckabee was asked the following question about sponsoring a bill proposing tuition cuts to illegal aliens graduating from Arkansas high schools:
“Governor Huckabee, while governor of Arkansas, you gave illegal aliens a discount for college in Arkansas by allow them to pay lower in-state tuition rates. However, we have thousands of military members currently serving our country in Iraq with children at home. If these children chose to move to Arkansas to attend college, they would have to pay three times the tuition rate that illegal aliens pay. Would you support a federal law which would require any state that gives these tuition rates to illegal aliens to give the same rates to the children of our military members?”
Huckabee answered:
“Thank you very much. Ashley, first of all, let me just express that you're a little misinformed. We never passed a bill that gave special privileges to the children of illegals to go to college.
Now, let me tell you what I did do. I supported the bill that would've allowed those children who had been in our schools their entire school life the opportunity to have the same scholarship that their peers had, who had also gone to high school with them and sat in the same classrooms.
They couldn't just move in in their senior year and go to college. It wasn't about out of state tuition. It was an academic, meritorious scholarship called the Academic Challenge Scholarship.
Now, let me tell you a couple of provisions of it. And, by the way, it didn't pass. It passed the House but got in the Senate and got caught up in the same kind of controversy that this country is caught up in.
And here's what happened. This bill would've said that if you came here, not because you made the choice but because your parents did, that we're not going to punish a child because the parent committed a crime.
That's not what we typically do in this country.
It said that if you'd sat in our schools from the time you're five or six-years old and you had become an A-plus student, you'd completed the core curriculum, you were an exceptional student, and you also had to be drug and alcohol-free -- and the other provision, you had to be applying for citizenship.
It accomplished two things that we knew we wanted to do, and that is, number one, bring people from illegal status to legal status.
And the second thing, we wanted people to be taxpayers, not tax-takers. And that's what that provision did.
And finally, would we give that provision to the children of veterans, personally? What we've done with not just the children of veterans, but most importantly, veterans is disgraceful in this country.
And that's why I proposed a veterans bill of rights that, if anything, would give our veterans the most exceptional privileges of all, because they are the ones who have earned all of our freedom -- every single one of them.”
Discussion of Huckabee’s Lies, Deceit and Misrepresentation
Instead of being candid, Huckabee tried to confuse the issue by interjecting information about the Arkansas Academic Challenge Program, codified at Ark. Code Ann. § 6-82-1001, et seq. (a copy of which is enclosed). The Academic Challenge Program is based on being an Arkansas resident and makes no mention of the children of illegal aliens. In addition, the truth is that Huckabee played no part in the Academic Challenge Program and that it was enacted with the passing of Arkansas Act 352 of 1991, becoming law more than four years before Huckabee began his first time as Arkansas Governor in 1996.
Mr. Huckabee sought to avoid questions about the bill that he was really asked about, the Access to Postsecondary Education Act of 2005, HB1525. A full copy of that bill is attached. Huckabee can be viewed promoting HB1525 during his State of the State Address at
http://www.immigrationwatchdog.com/?p=5193.
A mere perusal of HB1525 reveals that Huckabee was deceptive in giving his response. For example, Huckabee indicated that the bill required children to attend schools in Arkansas their “entire school life,” or “from the time you’re five or six-years old.” However, Section 1(b) of HB1525 only required three years of attendance in an Arkansas school.
Huckabee claimed that students had to be an “a A-plus student” and that they must have “completed the core curriculum,” and “be drug and alcohol free.” The truth is that not even a single one of these requirements is contained in HB1525. HB1525 was not a merit based bill.
Huckabee also was untruthful when he said that the bill would “bring people from illegal status to legal status.” The bill did not require legal status. Rather, it only required filing an affidavit saying that you intend to legalize your immigration status. Contrary to what Huckabee said, HB1525 did not even require proof of even attempting to obtain legal status. Huckabee also tried to deflect attention away from his actions by saying that the bill would make people taxpayers. Again, the bill contained no such requirement because proof of legal status was not part of HB1525.
Summary of Huckabee’s Lies, Deceit and Misrepresentation
In sum, a total of five statements made by Huckabee in his response to one single question were lies. The lies were (as emphasized below):
(1) “I supported the bill that would've allowed those children who had been in our schools their entire school life the opportunity to have the same scholarship that their peers had, who had also gone to high school with them and sat in the same classrooms.”
(2) “It was an academic, meritorious scholarship called the Academic Challenge Scholarship.”
(3) “It said that if you'd sat in our schools from the time you're five or six-years old and you had become an A-plus student, you'd completed the core curriculum, you were an exceptional student, and you also had to be drug and alcohol-free -- and the other provision, you had to be applying for citizenship.”
(4) “It accomplished two things that we knew we wanted to do, and that is, number one, bring people from illegal status to legal status.”
(5) “And the second thing, we wanted people to be taxpayers, not tax-takers. And that's what that provision did.”
It’s one thing to flip flop on a position that is the most important issue in the campaign. It’s a vastly different thing to tell millions of Americans numerous lies about your record on the issue.
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