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Reilly accused of 'flip-flop' on immigrants
By Scott Helman, Globe Staff | June 23, 2006

When asked this week about Governor Mitt Romney's proposal to deputize state troopers for immigration enforcement, Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly said the idea was worth considering.

But less than three months ago, Reilly told immigrant advocates he did not believe state or local police should be used as immigration agents, arguing that putting them in such a role would ``undermine" public safety.

Reilly and other candidates were asked on an April questionnaire for gubernatorial candidates drawn up by the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition: ``Do you believe local and state police should be required to act as immigration agents?"

Reilly's response: ``Mandating that our local and state police act as immigration agents would undermine their ability to keep our streets and neighborhoods safe, by diverting police from crucial public safety work and chilling communication and cooperation with immigrant communities."

Reilly's campaign insists his comments this week are consistent with his answer on the questionnaire, but the state Republican Party yesterday seized on the episode, calling it ``another top cop flip-flop."

``We're going to need to print up a scorecard to keep up with Tom Reilly's changing positions," Mark Rowe, acting executive director of the state GOP, said in a statement. ``At this rate the voters are going to have whiplash by Primary Day."

Over the last week, Reilly has been put on the defensive over his stance on immigration. After the Globe reported that some contractors on state-funded construction projects have apparently employed undocumented workers, Reilly said it was his responsibility to protect workers, not crack down on employers.

In the wake of the story, Romney said he would ask the US government to grant State Police the authority to enforce federal immigration laws. Asked about Romney's plan after a WGBH debate Wednesday, Reilly told reporters that he would be open, at least in certain circumstances, to seeing State Police have such powers.

``If there is a meaningful role that's carved out for states, including State Police, that's something that we should entertain and look into," Reilly said Wednesday.

Reilly said he would support using troopers to help deport illegal immigrants who had committed crimes. But he was noncommittal about whether state troopers would have the power to arrest immigrants who are here illegally but who have not broken the law. Romney's plan would give troopers that power.

The Reilly campaign contends that questions about Romney's plan and the query on the questionnaire are very different.

``The state Republican Party is attempting to compare apples to oranges," campaign spokesman Corey Welford said in an e-mail. ``What little we know about Governor Romney's proposal is that it falls far short of asking the State Police to become immigration officers."

In describing his proposal, Romney said his intention was to make Massachusetts a less desirable place for undocumented immigrants to live and work. If state troopers gained the authority, which requires the approval of the US government, they would only be able to arrest illegal immigrants they encounter during the normal course of their jobs, such as a driver they pull over for speeding on the Massachusetts Turnpike.

Law enforcement officials in other states have won such authority from the federal government, and the MIRA questionnaire sought to gauge the gubernatorial candidates' positions on local police powers and other issues that affect immigrant communities.

The questionnaire was also filled out by a Democratic rival of Reilly's, Deval L. Patrick, and the Green-Rainbow Party candidate, Grace Ross, both of whom also said they opposed having state and local police enforce federal immigration laws. (Patrick reiterated that position after Wednesday's debate.) The results of the questionnaires were handed out at an Immigrants' Day celebration at the State House April 4.

Neither Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey nor i ndependent Christy Mihos filled one out, and MIRA has asked them again, along with asking the third Democrat, Christopher F. Gabrieli, who was not in race at the time, said the group's executive director, Ali Noorani.

Noorani refused to comment on how Reilly's remarks this week compared with his answer on the questionnaire, but he lamented the way immigrants have become a target in the governor's race.

``The level of discourse is in the mud right now, and candidates on both sides of the aisle are happy to keep it there," he said.

The Republican Party yesterday sought to portray Reilly's comments on the State Police proposal as another example of how he's altered his positions on key issues, including gay marriage and rolling back the income tax rate to 5 percent, both of which he used to oppose but now favors.

Healey, Reilly's potential Republican rival in the governor's race, has already tried to make much of his different stances, dubbing him a ``flip-flopping . . . political chameleon" at the state GOP convention two months ago. And though Healey hasn't aired any campaign TV ads yet, her advertising guru is Stuart Stevens, whose firm made the infamous 2004 TV spot that used a video of Senator John Kerry's windsurfing tacks to highlight changes in his positions.

Welford responded to the Republican Party's attack yesterday by saying, ``Mitt Romney's Republican Party is the last outfit on the planet that should be lecturing anyone about consistency. He's got more positions on a woman's right to choose than he has neck ties."

Meanwhile yesterday, roughly 100 immigrants, advocates for immigrants and civil liberties, and religious leaders gathered in front of Romney's State House office to deliver him a letter opposing the plan to have state troopers enforce federal immigration laws.

``With all due respect to the work of the Massachusetts State Police . . . it is clear the enforcement of complex immigration law would drain valuable time and resources from their efforts to protect the public's safety," Noorani wrote on behalf of the group. ``Governor Romney, your proposal puts the state of Massachusetts at great risk."

Opponents of Romney's proposal also argue it would make people in immigrant communities less likely to report crimes.

Also yesterday, union leaders representing more than 80,000 members in Massachusetts sent a letter to the Legislature asking lawmakers to reject bills that seek to force Reilly to crack down on employers who violate immigration laws by hiring people in the country illegally.

``We strongly believe that requiring any role for the Massachusetts attorney general in enforcement of federal immigration law will lead to increased exploitation of workers by unscrupulous employers and will severely undermine enforcement of the Commonwealth's wage and hour laws," the letter reads. ``These laws protect and support the entire Massachusetts workforce."

Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com.