Mitt Romney tries to self-deport everything he's ever said about immigration reform

[ProSense]

Mitt Romney tries to self-deport everything he's ever said about immigration reform

by Jed Lewison



Now Mitt Romney blames President Obama for Republican obstruction on immigration reform:

“This has always been a priority for the President he chooses to do nothing about,” Romney said. “Let the immigrant community not forget that, while he uses this as a political weapon, he has not taken responsibility for fixing the problems we have.”

Sure ... it's President Obama's fault that Republicans have blocked comprehensive immigration reform every single time it's come up during the last decade. It's Obama's fault that Mitt Romney's Republican Party won't even support the DREAM Act. It's got nothing to do with Republican extremism at all. Clearly, if you want to see immigration reform, you should trust Mitt Romney and a Republican Congress to get the job done:

“That is something that I will not just talk about in this campaign. This will be a priority of mine if I become president to make sure we finally reform our immigration laws step by step, secure the border, improve our legal immigration system, so we can keep people here and welcome people here who will make America a stronger nation,” he said.

I guess this is exactly what Romney's campaign was talking about when it said Romney would try to Etch-A-Sketch his primary positions away.

Just a few months ago, he was staking out such a hardline position on immigration that even Rick Perry said he "didn't have a heart." And when Newt Gingrich said he didn't want to deport otherwise law-abiding undocumented immigrants who had been here for a quarter-century, Romney thought it was a golden opportunity to attack Newt for being too pro-immigrant. Then, just to outdo himself, Romney not only said he favored an immigration policy that would lead to "self-deportation," he said Arizona's "Paper's Please" law was a model for the nation.

But now Romney wants to win over a different set of voters, so he says the he's the pro-immigrant candidate. He says that it's Democrats who've been blocking immigration reform. He says that he wants an immigration policy designed to "keep people here."

- more -

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/04/03/1080190/-Mitt-Romney-tries-to-self-deport-everything-he-s-ever-said-about-immigration-reform

A swing and a miss from Romney on immigration

By Steve Benen

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Mitt Romney's presidential campaign is starting to worry about the damage Republicans have done with Latino voters. Romney aides are reportedly "concerned" that the GOP "is turning away the increasingly powerful constituency."

The fears are well grounded; Romney and other Republicans have been alienating Latinos -- the fastest growing voting constituency in the U.S. -- throughout the 2012 race, so it stands to reason the likely GOP nominee will take steps to shake the Etch A Sketch and undo some of the damage.

But if Romney thinks rhetoric like this will improve his standing, he's deeply confused.

In a pitch aimed at the nation's growing pool of Hispanic voters, Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney attacked President Obama today for failing to fix the nation's broken immigration system. [...]

Speaking at an oil distributorship, the former Massachusetts governor said the president "chooses to do nothing" about fixing America's immigration laws and noted that Obama had pledged to make the issue a priority during his 2008 campaign for the White House.

Let me get this straight. Barack Obama wants comprehensive immigration reform, including the DREAM Act. Latino voters want comprehensive immigration reform, including the DREAM Act. Congressional Republicans have rejected all efforts to pass comprehensive immigration reform, including the DREAM Act, and Mitt Romney agrees with his party.

<...>

Romney is an opponent of the DREAM Act; he's palling around with Pete Wilson and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach; he endorses a "self-deportation" agenda; he's critical of bilingualism; and his casual dismissals of "amnesty" and "illegals" are a staple of his campaign rhetoric.

Romney is going to have to do better than "Obama hasn't passed laws I already oppose."

http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/03/10999670-a-swing-and-a-miss-from-romney-on-immigration

[ProSense]

1. Kick!

Shake!