New York Times (Article by Michael Shear): As Mitt Romney sought support among conservatives in his party's primary races this year, he pledged to back an immigration law in Arizona that has drawn a fierce legal challenge from President Obama and the federal government.
The right course for America is to drop these lawsuits against Arizona and other states that are trying to do the job Barack Obama isnt doing, Mr. Romney said during a debate in Arizona in February. And I will drop those lawsuits on Day 1.
But now, with a Supreme Court decision expected as soon as Thursday that will decide the constitutionality of the Arizona law, Mr. Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, faces a delicate political situation.
He and Mr. Obama are both competing for support among Latino voters, a constituency that could be decisive in important swing states like Colorado, Nevada, Florida and Virginia.
If Mr. Romney continues to side with Arizona's Republican governor, Jan Brewer, and the states' lawmakers who back tougher immigration laws, he runs the risk of deepening the rift between Hispanics and his party. But if he abandons his tough-on-illegals rhetoric, he could provide ammunition to conservative critics who have long doubted his commitment to their causes.
When the decision comes later this week or next, it will be the second time in about a week that Mr. Romney will be confronted with a choice about whether to moderate his primary-season statements about immigration.
On Sunday, Mr. Romney hedged in his reaction to Mr. Obama's new policy to stop deporting illegal immigrants who arrived in the United States as children and have no criminal record. A Bloomberg survey released on Tuesday found that likely voters and independents supported Mr. Obama's new policy by a margin of two-to-one.
Asked about it on CBS's Face the Nation program, Mr. Romney steered clear of the tougher language he used earlier this year to describe such policies. During the primaries, he said he would veto the Dream Act, which provides a path to citizenship for the illegal immigrant youth.
He repeatedly declined to say whether he would reverse Mr. Obama's new deportation policy while he worked toward a more permanent solution.
"Well, it would be overtaken by events if you will, by virtue of my putting in place a long-term solution, with legislation which creates law that relates to these individuals such that they know what their setting is going to be, not just for the term of a president but on a permanent basis," Mr. Romney said.
Coming on the heels of the administration's new policy, the court's decision on the Arizona law is likely to increase pressure on Mr. Romney to be more definitive about his positions on the immigration.
The Arizona law requires state officials to determine the immigration status of people they stop or arrest if officials have reason to believe they might be in the country illegally. It also allows the police to make an arrest without a warrant if they have probable cause to believe that a person is deportable.
The federal government sued, saying the statute conflicted with federal immigration laws and policies. Critics said it amounted to unnecessary profiling, but for much of the year Mr. Romney left little doubt of where he stood.
"I support the Arizona law by recognizing what Arizona has done underscored the failure of the federal government to do its job," Mr. Romney said on the Christian Broadcasting Network last September.
Some of Mr. Romney's allies, including Kris W. Kobach, the secretary of state in Kansas, have embraced the Arizona law and said they believe Mr. Romney does, too. Mr. Kobach told CBS News's Political Hotsheet this year that Arizona has become a model at what the U.S. should be doing at the federal level.
But top aides to Mr. Romney have said they recognize the need for him to reach out to Hispanic voters. Surveys suggest that Mr. Romney trails Mr. Obama among Hispanics by as much as 40 percentage points.
The question is how and when Mr. Romney does that outreach.
It could easily begin in the next few days. On Thursday, Mr. Romney is scheduled to deliver a major address at a conference of Latino public officials in Florida. The next day, Mr. Obama is scheduled to speak to the same group.
Mr. Romney could use the opportunity to elaborate on his immigration views, offering a fuller response to Mr. Obama's latest deportation policies. And if the court has issued its Arizona ruling (they usually are released by 10 a.m. Eastern Time), he may be pressed to talk about it in his speech.
Less clear than the timing, though, is how Mr. Romney will balance the political imperatives.
Democrats have said for weeks they expect him to "Etch A Sketch" his hard-line views on immigration, a reference to comments by an aide to Mr. Romney earlier this year. Conservatives have said they expect Mr. Romney to hold firm to the views he stated forcefully during the primary campaign.
Sooner or later, he will have to choose.
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