Romney On Immigration: Sorting Through The Record

NPR ^ | Ari Shaprio

[libertarian neocon]

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has been unofficially running for president for the better part of five years, and in that time, he has been asked about immigration over and over again. Now some of his rivals are arguing that his answers to the question have been inconsistent. And the issue blew up last week at a CNN debate on national security.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said someone who has lived peacefully in the United States for many years with a family, a community and a job should have an opportunity to become a legal permanent resident.

Mitt Romney said that sounds like amnesty.

"Saying that we're all going to say to the people who've come here illegally that now you're all going to get to stay, or some large number are going to get to stay and become permanent residents of the United States, that will only encourage more people to do the same thing," Romney said.

The next day, Gingrich tweeted a link to an earlier Romney appearance, from NBC's Meet the Press in 2007.

"Those people who've come here illegally and are in this country, the 12 million or so who are here illegally, should be able to sign up for permanent residency or citizenship," Romney said at the time.

The Romney campaign says that quote was taken out of context. They point to what Romney said next: "But they should not be given a special pathway, a special guarantee that all of them get to stay here for the rest of their lives merely by virtue of having come here illegally."

So Romney gives a thumbs up on some form of legal status. And he gives a thumbs down on what he calls "a special pathway" or "a special guarantee."

[libertarian neocon]

Flippity floppity floo

[Hodar]

Reminds me of the joke about a Norwegian (chose your ethic group) checking whether his new car's flasher worked.

“Yes, no, yes, no, yes, no ...”

[Vigilanteman]

Mitt ought to know better than any of the other RINOs in the hunt, but he apparently does not. I believe his Daddy was born in Mexico and the family had to flee for their lives with thousands of others shortly after Mexico's 1912 revolution.

Even to this day, Northern Mexico remains the most productive and ambitious part of that third world sh*thole largely as a legacy of capitalist American colonials. I believe Vicente Fox's grandfather was one of the few Americans who avoided the expulsion because he was married to a Mexican national.