Mitt Romney Steals A March
Mitt Romney is out ahead of the other presidential hopefuls. He has just come out as strongly opposing the illegal immigration deal that the Senate hatched.
Boston, MA - Governor Mitt Romney issued the following statement on today's U.S. Senate agreement on immigration reform:
"I strongly oppose today's bill going through the Senate. It is the wrong approach. Any legislation that allows illegal immigrants to stay in the country indefinitely, as the new 'Z-Visa' does, is a form of amnesty. That is unfair to the millions of people who have applied to legally immigrate to the U.S.
"Today's Senate agreement falls short of the actions needed to both solve our country's illegal immigration problem and also strengthen our legal immigration system. Border security and a reliable employment verification system must be our first priority."
He just won a lot of votes. On both sides of the aisle. An enormous majority of people in this country, regardless of party affiliation, who are not career politicians want the border controlled first. If that gets done, a lot of other things can be handled. But not closing the border is a deal breaker for the majority of the American public.
(Someone at the Romney campaign has a close eye on the pulse of blog commentary. They saw the wave against this agreement building early. It will be interesting to see what Fred Thompson comes out with. Incidentally, I suspect a lot of Senators are about to be in electoral difficulties - again, on both sides of the aisle.)
Immigration Reform | Gaius Thursday, 17 May , 2007
By Gilberto, Thursday, 17 May , 2007 @ 8:10 pm
Thompson’s statement came out around the same time today. Says they should trash the bill.
By Gaius, Thursday, 17 May , 2007 @ 8:25 pm
Link?
By jake, Thursday, 17 May , 2007 @ 8:30 pm
lol… go read what Romney said in November 2005 about this… another flop in camp Romney…
By smithfam548, Thursday, 17 May , 2007 @ 9:00 pm
I like the PRINCIPLE that Romney is espousing…that there should be NO incentives for illegals to be in this country. NO rewards for breaking the law to be in this country. I wish his viewpoint had more press.
By Purple Avenger, Thursday, 17 May , 2007 @ 9:17 pm
If the rumored $5,000 fine is part of this, then its just eyewash to appease the illegal supporters. There is not an illegal in this country who will bother paying a $5,000 fine…
…and why should they? The penalty for getting caught and deported is $0.00 and you can just sneak back in if the borders remain porous.
The illegals may not be rocket scientists, but they’re not as dumb as these fools seem to believe.
By Pedro, Friday, 18 May , 2007 @ 3:27 am
Being fair to those who applied legaly is not the objective of this legislation (in fact it doesn’t marginalize their rights in any way)… The objective is to deal fairly with the millions who are already here.
I am yet to see Romney porpose a better plan especially when his own lawn was manicured by illegal immigrants.
By Gaius, Friday, 18 May , 2007 @ 5:57 am
Ah, the smears from the left. He must have hit a nerve.
By eyerate, Friday, 18 May , 2007 @ 8:05 am
Is the Z for Zorro?
By Chad, Friday, 18 May , 2007 @ 8:36 am
Mitt is the only GOP running that has it right on immigration. the flip flop crap is ridiculous. in Massachusetts we was the only governor in the country who trained state troopers in federal immigration laws and petitioned the federal government to empower them to enforce those laws. Flip flop, whatever, look at his record. Look at what he did. Who is better, Guliani, McCain? I dont’ think so. He has got and and that is why i support him.
By Purple Avenger, Friday, 18 May , 2007 @ 8:38 am
The objective is to deal fairly with the millions who are already here.
Enforcing existing law and deporting them would be a nice start.
I see in the Mexican constitution, as an American I explicitly have no right what so ever to even demonstrate/protest against any policy of the Mexican government without being liable to summary deportation, without any appeal process, by an order of the Mexican president.
By Jungle Jim, Friday, 18 May , 2007 @ 11:30 am
“Being fair to those who applied legaly is not the objective of this legislation (in fact it doesn’t marginalize their rights in any way)… The objective is to deal fairly with the millions who are already here. ”
Why should we be ‘fair’ to those who have broken our laws, violated our sovereignty, and taken jobs from law-abiding Americans?
See my comments on the matter in Provocateur:
http://provocateurjim.blogspot.com/
By Timotheus, Friday, 18 May , 2007 @ 1:38 pm
Purple Avenger-
If you think that American citizenship is not worth $5,000 to an illegal, you are wrong. They spend that much or more to be smuggled across the border.
By Pedro, Friday, 18 May , 2007 @ 5:24 pm
What I am saying is that restoring fairness to those who come here legally is not the point of ANY legislation pointed at curbing illegal immigration. Deport or pardon, legal immigrants are unaffected. So being fair is not even an issue and what I don’t understand is why Romney mentions it… just to fill in the blank…
Purple Avenger, are you suggesting we look up to Mexico for how to improve our laws or just pointing out that Mexico is as much a democracy as Russia.