Arizona Republic (Article by Dan Nowicki): At the Feb. 22 Republican presidential debate in downtown Mesa, Mitt Romney said an Arizona law offered "a model" for national illegal-immigration policy.
But which state statute was the former Massachusetts governor talking about?
National Democrats and some immigration advocates and journalists interpreted his remark as being about Senate Bill 1070, Arizona's highly divisive 2010 immigration-enforcement law that is anathema to many Latino voters. SB 1070 prompted President Barack Obama's U.S. Justice Department to sue, and a judge has put its most controversial provisions on hold.
However, Ryan Williams, a Romney spokesman, told The Arizona Republic that Romney was referring specifically to the state's E-Verify requirement as the model and not the immigration-enforcement law. The CNN debate transcript backs Williams up, but that hasn't stopped political foes and critics from blistering Romney over SB 1070.
The morning after the Mesa forum, the Democratic National Committee shot out a Web video linking Romney's "model" comment to SB 1070 and hitting him as "the GOP's most extreme candidate" on immigration. Others have since followed suit.
"Arizona's law is a perfect model -- it shows America exactly the policy to avoid on immigration, and it shows Americans exactly the type of candidate to avoid for president of the United States," U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., said Wednesday in a speech on the House floor.
But it's clear from the transcript that Romney was describing part of the state's 2007 employer-sanctions law, which has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. That Arizona law requires employers to use a federal electronic system to verify whether new hires are eligible to work in the United States and provides punishment for companies that hire undocumented immigrants.
"You know, I think you see a model in Arizona," Romney said at the debate. "They passed a law here that says that people who come here and try and find work, that the employer is required to look them up on E-Verify. This E-Verify system allows employers in Arizona to know who's here legally and who's not here legally."
The clarification likely will do little to improve Romney's standing with supporters of comprehensive immigration reform or the Dream Act, a piece of legislation that would allow undocumented immigrants brought here as children by their parents to gain legal status and eventually citizenship if they completed some college or served in the military. Romney has vowed to veto the Dream Act as president. And he isn't exactly distancing himself from SB 1070, either.
"Governor Romney also recognizes the right of states to assist in the enforcement of federal immigration law, just as he authorized Massachusetts state law enforcement to do," Williams said. "He would therefore drop President Obama's lawsuits against states like Arizona that are making up for the federal government's failure to stop illegal immigration."
But which state statute was the former Massachusetts governor talking about?
National Democrats and some immigration advocates and journalists interpreted his remark as being about Senate Bill 1070, Arizona's highly divisive 2010 immigration-enforcement law that is anathema to many Latino voters. SB 1070 prompted President Barack Obama's U.S. Justice Department to sue, and a judge has put its most controversial provisions on hold.
However, Ryan Williams, a Romney spokesman, told The Arizona Republic that Romney was referring specifically to the state's E-Verify requirement as the model and not the immigration-enforcement law. The CNN debate transcript backs Williams up, but that hasn't stopped political foes and critics from blistering Romney over SB 1070.
The morning after the Mesa forum, the Democratic National Committee shot out a Web video linking Romney's "model" comment to SB 1070 and hitting him as "the GOP's most extreme candidate" on immigration. Others have since followed suit.
"Arizona's law is a perfect model -- it shows America exactly the policy to avoid on immigration, and it shows Americans exactly the type of candidate to avoid for president of the United States," U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., said Wednesday in a speech on the House floor.
But it's clear from the transcript that Romney was describing part of the state's 2007 employer-sanctions law, which has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. That Arizona law requires employers to use a federal electronic system to verify whether new hires are eligible to work in the United States and provides punishment for companies that hire undocumented immigrants.
"You know, I think you see a model in Arizona," Romney said at the debate. "They passed a law here that says that people who come here and try and find work, that the employer is required to look them up on E-Verify. This E-Verify system allows employers in Arizona to know who's here legally and who's not here legally."
The clarification likely will do little to improve Romney's standing with supporters of comprehensive immigration reform or the Dream Act, a piece of legislation that would allow undocumented immigrants brought here as children by their parents to gain legal status and eventually citizenship if they completed some college or served in the military. Romney has vowed to veto the Dream Act as president. And he isn't exactly distancing himself from SB 1070, either.
"Governor Romney also recognizes the right of states to assist in the enforcement of federal immigration law, just as he authorized Massachusetts state law enforcement to do," Williams said. "He would therefore drop President Obama's lawsuits against states like Arizona that are making up for the federal government's failure to stop illegal immigration."
No comments:
Post a Comment