Huckabee on In-State Tuition for Illegals: ‘You Don’t Punish a Child for Something His Parents Did’

Former Arkansas Governor and likely 2016 presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said illegal immigrant DREAMers should receive in-state tuition benefits because “you don’t punish a child for something his parents did.”

In an appearance on Meet the Press, Huckabee said he supported legislation to give in-state tuition to illegal immigrant DREAMers in Arkansas when he was governor because, “we force, by law, people to go to school in our states.”

Huckabee mentioned a valedictorian in Arkansas who was brought to the country by illegal immigrant parents when he was five years of age, and he said that student should “qualify for the same scholarships” as everyone else.

“I don’t know that we’ve ever been a nation that said, ‘If you’re in the back seat of your car when your dad is speeding, we’re going to charge you in the back seat for what your dad did up in the front seat,'” he continued. “That just doesn’t ring true to me.”

Huckabee did say that he would support rolling back President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program because the president does not have the authority to unilaterally award temporary amnesty.