Thread: Mitt Romney: No path to citizenship for illegal immigrants

Posted by Aaron Blake on March 3, 2013 at 9:56 am
The Washington Post

Mitt Romney, who blamed much of his loss in the 2012 presidential campaign on his and his party’s failure to connect with Latino voters, said Sunday that he remains opposed to providing a path to citizenship or even permanent residency to illegal immigrants.

“People who have come here illegally should not be given a special pathway to permanent residency or citizenship in this country merely because they’ve come here illegally,” Romney said in an interview with “Fox News Sunday” in his first public comments since the 2012 election.

Romney did clarify that others in his party have different views on that issue and that he hopes a comprehensive immigration reform package gets done.

“I hope that happens,” Romney said. “I believe that will happen.”

Since Romney’s loss, in which he lost the Latino vote by more than 40 points, party leaders have pushed forward with a comprehensive immigration reform package that is likely to include a path to citizenship. It remains to be seen whether the conservative base will accept such a deal.

Romney said the party needs to do better.

“The weakness that our campaign had and that I had is we weren’t effective in taking my message primarily to minority voters, to Hispanic-Americans, African-Americans, other minorities,” Romney said. “That was a real weakness.”

Mitt Romney: No path to citizenship for illegal immigrants

By Meghashyam Mali - 03/03/13 10:35 AM ET
The Hill

Former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney says it “kills” him to not be in the White House, leading the nation.

“I wish I were there. It kills me not to be there, not to be in the White House doing what needs to be done,” said Romney, in his first television interview since he lost the election.

Romney, speaking on Fox News Sunday, criticized President Obama, saying that he believed he was more focused on campaigning and less on leading the nation in solving its fiscal challenges.

“The president is the leader of the nation. The president brings people together, does the deals, does the trades, knocks the heads together; the president leads and I don't see that kind of leadership happening right now,” said Romney.

“He’s campaigning,” he added.

The former Massachusetts governor panned Obama’s handling of the sequester debate, saying his efforts to blame GOP lawmakers for the $85 billion in cuts, which took effect on Friday, had prevented a deal.

“To date, what we've seen is a -- the president out campaigning to the American people, doing rallies around the country, flying around the country and berating Republicans and blaming and pointing,” he said. “That causes the Republicans to retrench and to put up a wall and to fight back.

Romney urged both sides to return to the table and work on a grand bargain to rein in the nation’s deficit. He said lawmakers and the White House had a “once a generational opportunity for America to solve its fiscal problems.”

“There should be a deal done here and it should be not just solving the short-term sequester issue, but dealing with the long-term fiscal challenge that America has,” he said.

“I see this as this huge opportunity and it's being squandered by politics, by people who are more interested in a political victory than they are in doing what's right for the country,” he added.

Romney also criticized the president’s efforts on immigration reform and expressed skepticism about measures to grant illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship.

“People who have come here illegally should not be given a special pathway to permanent residency or citizenship in this country merely because they've come here illegally,” he said.

Looking back at his presidential bid, Romney said he was hurt by his inability to win over minority votes and over his “47 percent” remarks.

Romney said his campaign was not “effective in taking my message primarily to minority voters.”

“That was a real weakness,” he said.

Romney also said his remark that "47 percent" of Americans believed they were "victims" and expected government to provide for them was an “unfortunate statement.”

“It's not what I meant. I didn't express myself as I wished I would have. You know, when you speak in private, uh, you don't spend as much time thinking about how something could be twisted and distorted and -- and it could come out wrong and be used,” he said.

“That hurt. There's no question that hurt and did real damage to my campaign,” he continued.

But Romney said that although his presidential bid came up short, he still hoped to have a role in the GOP and help the party recover.

“I'm not going to be the leader of the Republican Party. Other people will take that mantle,” said Romney. “But I want to have influence on getting our party into a position where we can be successful in solving the problems the country has.”

“I’m not going to disappear,” he added.

Mitt Romney:

“The weakness that our campaign had and that I had is we weren’t effective in taking my message primarily to minority voters, to Hispanic-Americans, African-Americans, other minorities,” Romney said. “That was a real weakness.”

Or perhaps some of them would not vote for you no matter what you said or did.

Lord we need a viable 3rd party in America soon.

W

“The weakness that our campaign had and that I had is we weren’t effective in taking my message primarily to minority voters, to Hispanic-Americans, African-Americans, other minorities,” Romney said. “That was a real weakness.”

What he meant to say here is that the Democrats have a much more advanced fraudulent vote program in place.

Originally Posted by Jean

Posted by Aaron Blake on March 3, 2013 at 9:56 am
The Washington Post

Mitt Romney, who blamed much of his loss in the 2012 presidential campaign on his and his party’s failure to connect with Latino voters, said Sunday that he remains opposed to providing a path to citizenship or even permanent residency to illegal immigrants.

Bravo to Romney for for continuing to oppose an amnesty which would lead to permanent legalization of illegal aliens. I wish that Repubs could be honest about their status with Undocumented Democrats. Legalizing them would only decrease Republican numbers in both houses of congress. Exit polls show that Hispanics don't think that Republicans care about anyone who isn't rich. Repubs would be wise to construct a policy which shows how Repubs support family values. And if Repubs are wise, they will also say how amnesty would guarantee that Americans would have even more difficulty getting entry level jobs. This ain't rocket science.
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Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

“The weakness that our campaign had and that I had is we weren’t effective in taking my message primarily to minority voters, to Hispanic-Americans, African-Americans, other minorities,” Romney said. “That was a real weakness.”

Would not producing jobs for America help "all" American citizens why should a candidate single out any group other then the American citizen.

Sadly the media runs our elections and the liberals run the corrupt ground game.