Civil Liberties

Huckabee is opposed to closing the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay. He argues that it is better to make a mistake at Guantanamo in order to protect Americans. “There is not a perfect solution. The perfect solution is to get people to quit being terrorists. If we’re going to make a mistake right now, let’s make it on the side of protecting the American people,” said Huckabee.

CNN Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer (presidential series), Jun 10, 2007

Immigration

Huckabee has issued an extensive new plan that calls for illegal aliens to return home voluntarily, instituting a universal citizenship verification system as part of the hiring process, completing a border fence between the U.S. and Mexico, and ending several legal immigration programs.

Huckabee had previously called for a way for undocumented aliens to earn a path towards citizenship. However, his new plan proposes to provide all illegal immigrants a 120 day window to register with the government and leave the country. Those who register and leave the country face no penalty if they later apply to immigrate or visit. Those who do not return home will be, when caught, barred from returning to the U.S. for ten years.

Huckabee believes that securing our borders must be a top priority and has reached the level of a national emergency. “I don’t believe that the average American resents that people want to come here…. But securing the border is something I think every one of us agree on,” Huckabee said in Republican presidential debate.

Huckabee’s plan discourages dual citizenship by imposing civil and/or criminal penalties on American citizens who illegitimately use their dual status (e.g., using a foreign passport, voting in elections in both a foreign country and the U.S.). The plan also calls for the elimination of the visa lottery system and the admission category for adult brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens but increases visas for highly skilled and highly educated applicants.

In response to a question at GOP Values Voter presidential debate in September of 2007, Huckabee stated that he would not support issuing student visas to nationals of countries that are state sponsors of terrorist groups.

Mike Huckabee For President

Huckabee Changes Tack on Illegals, Washington Times, December 8, 2007

Huckabee On the Issues

Iran

Huckabee supports engaging Iran in diplomatic talks. "The Administration has quite properly said that it will not take the military option for Iran off the table. Neither would I,” said Huckabee in a foreign policy speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “But if we don't put other options on the table, eventually the military option becomes the only viable one. Right now we are proceeding down only one track with Iran - armed confrontation.”

Huckabee believes recent direct negotiations with Iran over Iraq have been too narrowly focused and do not explore the full range of possibilities. “While there can be no rational dealing with Al Qaeda, Iran is a nation state looking for regional power, it plays the normal power politics that we understand and can skillfully pursue, and we have substantive issues to negotiate with them,” said Huckabee. "Many Iranians are well-disposed toward us. We should remember that on 9/11, while there was dancing in the street in other parts of the Muslim world, there were candlelight vigils and mourning in Tehran. When we first invaded Afghanistan, Iran helped us, especially in our dealings with their allies, the Northern Alliance.”

Speech, "Paths and Priorities in the War on Terror", Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Washington, DC, September 28, 2007

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