GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee will tour the Mexican border Saturday from Border Field State Park to the San Ysidro Port of Entry, his campaign said Wednesday.
Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, was invited by former East County congressman Duncan Lee Hunter — the father of the current 50th District House member, Duncan D. Hunter. The elder Hunter ran for president in 2008.
“Governor Huckabee will address the media and outline his plan to secure the border within the first year of his presidency,” spokeswoman Alice Stewart told CNN. “The governor has always said that the number one priority in immigration reform is securing the border first.”
“The fact that people say that we can’t secure the border, that’s nonsense,” Huckabee has been quoted as saying. “This country can do it if we want to. You just have to have a president that’s committed to it.”
According to national polls compiled by Real Clear Politics, Huckabee stood in eighth place with an average support of 2.9 percent of those surveyed. When he spoke at the San Diego ALEC meeting in late July, he was polling at 6.2 percent.
Donald Trump leads at 23.2 percent in the average of nine major polls, followed by Ben Carson (17.2) and Carly Fiorina (10.4).
Huckabee will also be accompanied by officials of National Border Patrol Council, a labor union affiliated with the AFL-CIO. The council lists several aims, including being the “guardians of nonsupervisory Border Patrol agents and support personnel assigned to the United States Border Patrol.”
“We are caught in the middle,” Shawn Moran, council vice president, told CNBC.com in July. “Republicans like us because we are law enforcement. Democrats like us because we are a union. But we haven’t seemed to be able to get both sides together.”
But the union is at odds with the AFL-CIO on immigration policy. Moran said many of his members consider the parent’s position to be “pro-amnesty,” he told CNBC.
According to the Federal Election Commission, Huckabee raised $2 million between April 1 and June 30 — with six donors from San Diego County, led by real estate broker Sergio Giordano ($2,700) of La Mesa and real estate agent Frank Giordano of El Cajon ($2,000).