Illegal Immigration

[Guest American4Progress]

Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) blamed the president for making it harder to find a permanent solution to the issue, despite the fact that just two months ago Boehner himself nixed the idea of even taking it up:

 

“It puts everyone in a difficult position,” Boehner said of Obama’s policy change, during a scrum with reporters. “I think we all have concerns for those who are caught in this trap, who through no fault of their own are here. But the president’s actions are going to make it much more difficult for us to work in a bipartisan way to get to a permanent solution.”

 

Boehner’s charge that Obama’s move means less chance for bipartisanship in moving Dream Act legislation comes after he already squashed the idea that a Dream Act-type proposal offered by someone in his own party, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), could advance.

 

“The problem with this issue is that we’re operating in a very hostile political environment,” Boehner said in April.

 

“To deal with a very difficult issue like this, I think it would be difficult at best.”

 

This ridiculous assertion also ignores the fact that Republicans almost unanimously opposed the DREAM Act in 2010, the last time it came up for a vote in Congress.

 

Boehner also dismissed Democrats’ calls in 2010 to take up a comprehensive solution as a “cynical ploy” and of course House Republicans were responsible for killing comprehensive immigration reform during the Bush administration.

 

IN ONE SENTENCE: Republicans have spent years, if not decades, demonizing immigrants and a tweak to a website here and revisionist claim there isn’t going to Etch A Sketch away their extreme record on immigration.

[Guest American4Progress]

Republicans have been thrown into disarray by the president’s very popular announcement on immigration, with Mitt Romney and others simply refusing to say where they stand. Well, we wanted to know where they stand so that you could know too. So ThinkProgress called the offices of every single Republican in the House of Representatives and Senate to ask if they supported the president’s new immigration policy or not.

 

Mitt Romney Continues to Hide the Ball

 

During one of the many recent interviews in which he’s refused to give a direct answer on immigration, Romney said he didn’t want “to football with” the issue. (Yes, he used football as a verb.) In reality, it seems that Romney is simply interested in hiding the ball when it comes to his real views on immigration.

 

the Romney campaign refused to answer reporters’ questions on immigration, promising more details in today’s big speech to the national conference of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials. Unfortunately,almost one full week after the president’s announcement, Romney once again refused to say if he’d let the new policy stand.

 

Romney also left a few other things out of his remarks to the Latino officials gathered before him.

Romney forgot to mention his attack on the president for standing up to states who pass discriminatory anti-immigrant laws:

 

“The right course for America is to drop these lawsuits against Arizona and other states that are trying to do the job Barack Obama isn’t doing. And I will drop those lawsuits on day one.”

 

While Romney told the crowd,”when I make a promise to you, I will keep it,” he forgot to remind them of his promise to veto the DREAM Act:

 

“And I have indicated I would veto the DREAM Act if provisions included in that act to say that people who are here illegally, if they go to school here long enough, get a degree here that they can become permanent residents. I think that’s a mistake. I think we have to follow the law and insist those who come here illegally, ultimately return home, apply, and get in line with everyone else.”

 

And he also didn’t remind Latinos that just a few months ago he called the DREAM Act a “handout”:

 

They want good jobs in America and rising incomes. If they want a president who is going to talk to them about a handout or more benefits for free, they got that guy.

 

He also failed to mention his preferred solution to the 11 million undocumented immigrants already in this country — making their lives so miserable that they’ll “self-deport”:

“Well, the answer is self-deportation, which is people decide they can do better by going home because they can’t find work here because they don’t have legal documentation to allow them to work here.”

Romney also didn’t mention his strong support for Arizona’s “papers please” law. Nor did he remind the crowd that one of his top advisers on immigration is Kris Kobach, the author of the Arizona and Alabama anti-immigrant laws. And he didn’t bring up his close association with former California Gov. Pete Wilson, one of America’s most notoriously anti-Latino politicians.

Finally, Romney chose not to use the offensive term “illegals” to refer to undocumented immigrants, a word he used with impunity throughout the Republican primary.

IN ONE SENTENCE: Mitt Romney may want to hide the ball when it comes to his real views on immigration, but he can’t Etch A Sketch away his and other Republicans’ extreme views on the issue.