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tazzygirl -> Romney vs Gingrich : Immigration (11/28/2011 11:46:39 AM)
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“Amnesty is a magnet. People respond to incentives. And if you could become a permanent resident of the United States by coming here illegally, you’ll do so.”
-- Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at the Nov. 22 CNN/Heritage/AEI debate blasting frontrunner Newt Gingrich’s plan to offer conditional residency for long-time illegal immigrants with deep ties to their communities.
“We should have those individuals who are here illegally begin a process either of returning to their homes -- particularly those that are unable to be here without government support or those who are involved in crime --or beginning a process of registering for a citizenship, applying for citizenship and then carrying out the process necessary to get there.”
-- Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney advancing a seemingly identical policy in a 2006 interview with Bloomberg News.
In his bid to lock up the Republican nomination in fast fashion, GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney is again flirting with hard-line immigration policies, a risky course that reflects Romney’s difficulty in straddling primary and general election campaigns.
While Romney scored easy points against rival Rick Perry for offering in-state college tuition to students who came to Texas illegally as children but who have applied for citizenship, his effort to paint Newt Gingrich as soft on immigration runs the risk of giving Democrats the chance to paint Romney as a xenophobe who plans to round up dark-skinned potential border jumpers.
But, as Romney learned when he pushed the issue against John McCain in 2008, illegal immigration has particular potency in Iowa where an influx of migrant workers in agricultural jobs – particularly in the meat-packing industry – have rankled voters.
Zapping Perry again and again on his Texas program was good politics since it went to the central grievance of many conservatives on illegal immigration: foreign nationals absorbing the benefits of a system they do not help fund. But Romney’s attack on Gingrich is broader.
Gingrich, true to form, has proposed a highly complex program by which local citizen panels, reminiscent of draft boards, would evaluate illegal aliens for their community ties and value as permanent citizens. Undesirable illegals would be put in a queue for deportation while the long-term residents with deep community ties would be allowed to stay. The program would still include the identification of every illegal immigrant in the country and would see millions of mostly Hispanic illegals return to their home countries to avoid registration.
By calling that plan “amnesty,” Romney is leaving himself very little running room on the issue. Five years ago, Romney opposed the idea of large-scale deportations of the more than 10 million immigrants in the country illegally. But, as campaign operatives from his 2008 run have said, Romney adopted a harder line on the subject after seeing the opportunity in the bitterness of many Iowans.
But it is a risky path for Romney, whose own father was born in Mexico.
~do not read that as Romney's father was not american...
Romney was born to American parents in the Mormon colonies in Mexico~
Polls show that there is only one position on illegal immigration that is a sure-fire general-election loser for Republicans with Hispanic voters: any plan that involves mass arrests and deportations.
Hispanic voters might tolerate some primary-season tough talk about building a “danged fence” along the U.S.-Mexico border or even some discussion of increasing the enforcement of employment laws, but poll after poll shows that anything like dragnets for illegals are decidedly unacceptable among the fastest growing demographic bloc in American politics.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/11/28/romney-charts-risky-course-with-immigration-attacks/#ixzz1f1yZnBNg
Which has the better plan for Republican voters?
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