Alice Stewart
NEW RELEASE
Little Rock, AR – Former Arkansas Governor and Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee is releasing "The Secure America Plan: A Nine-Point Strategy for Immigration Enforcement and Border Security," it was announced today.
Huckabee said he believes in adopting the best policy ideas to provide a "tough, equitable and comprehensive approach" to dealing with the current immigration crisis.
The text of the plan is provided below:
The Secure America Plan: A Nine-Point Strategy for Immigration Enforcement and Border Security
1. Build the Fence
· Ensure that
an interlocking surveillance camera system is installed along the border
by July 1, 2010.
· Ensure that
the border fence construction is completed by July 1, 2010.
2. Increase Border Patrol
· Increase the
number of border patrol agents.
· Fully support
all law enforcement personnel tasked with enforcing immigration law.
3. Prevent Amnesty
· Policies that
promote or tolerate amnesty will be rejected.
· Propose to
provide all illegal immigrants a 120-day window to register with the Citizenship
and Immigration Services and leave the country. Those who register and
return to their home country will face no penalty if they later apply to
immigrate or visit; those who do not return home will be, when caught,
barred from future reentry for a period of 10 years.
4. Enforce the Law on Employers
· Employment
is the chief draw for most illegal immigrants and denying them jobs is
the centerpiece of an attrition strategy.
· Impose steep
fines and penalties on employers that violate the law.
· Institute
a universal, mandatory citizenship verification system as part of the normal
hiring process.
· Prevent the
IRS and the Social Security Administration from accepting fraudulent Social
Security numbers or numbers that don't match the employees' names.*
5. Establish an Economic Border
· Move toward
passage of the FairTax.
· The FairTax
provides an extra layer of security by creating an economic disincentive
to immigrate to the U.S. illegally.
6. Empower Local Authorities
· Promote better
cooperation on enforcement by supporting legislative measures such as the
CLEAR Act, which aims to systematize the relationship between local law
and federal immigration officials.
· Encourage
immigration-law training for police. Local authorities must be provided
the tools, training, and funding they need so local police can turn illegal
immigrants over to the federal authorities.
7. Ensure Document Security
· End exemptions
for Mexicans and Canadians to the US-VISIT program, which tracks the arrival
and departure of foreign visitors. Since these countries account for the
vast majority of foreigners coming here (85 percent), such a policy clearly
violates Congress' intent in mandating this check-in/check-out system.
· Reject Mexico's
"matricula consular" card, which functions as an illegal-immigrant identification
card.
8. Discourage Dual Citizenship
· Inform foreign
governments when their former citizens become naturalized U.S. citizens.
· Impose 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.).
9. Modernize the Process of Legal Immigration
· Eliminate
the visa lottery system and the admission category for adult brothers and
sisters of U.S. citizens.
· Increase visas
for highly-skilled and highly-educated applicants.
· Expedite processing
for those who serve honorably in the U.S. Armed Forces.
· Improve our immigration
process so that those patiently and responsibly seeking to come here legally
will not have to wait decades to share in the American dream. Governor
Huckabee has always been grateful to live in a country that people are
trying to break into, rather than break out of.
*This policy will be drafted to comply with the final federal court
decisions on this issue.
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