Mitt Romney sat down for a 40-minute interview with the editorial board of The Washington Examiner this morning before appearing at the Republican Jewish Coalition. It was a wide ranging discussion and we will be posting a longer story and a full transcript later today. Romney’s answer on illegal immigration indicated he had a broad plan – one that we believe may rile some in the Republican base:
“Virtually every Republican I know that’s spoken about illegal immigration says the same thing. I listened to Lindsey Graham the other day and he said, ‘secure the border, stop the flow of illegal aliens into the country, and then we can address the issue of what to do with the people who are here illegally today.’
“I do have my own thoughts on that. I actually have a plan in mind, I haven’t unveiled it. There are other people I’d like to sit down with and review it with me.
“I went down to Florida and met with Jeb Bush six, seven months ago, laid out what I thought would be a complete plan to deal with permanent immigration policies with regards to our legal system to simplify it. Number two, how to deal with those who are here illegally today. And number three, how to secure the border.
“And every piece of advice I’ve received from people who talk about this topic say get the first job done first, because if you talk about the other jobs you get highly confused whether you are going to create incentives for people to come here illegally to take advantage of whatever program you might describe.”
“I do have my own thoughts on that. I actually have a plan in mind, I haven’t unveiled it. There are other people I’d like to sit down with and review it with me.
“I went down to Florida and met with Jeb Bush six, seven months ago, laid out what I thought would be a complete plan to deal with permanent immigration policies with regards to our legal system to simplify it. Number two, how to deal with those who are here illegally today. And number three, how to secure the border.
“And every piece of advice I’ve received from people who talk about this topic say get the first job done first, because if you talk about the other jobs you get highly confused whether you are going to create incentives for people to come here illegally to take advantage of whatever program you might describe.”
Lindsey Graham. Jeb Bush. If you are an “attrition-through-enforcement” conservative on illegal immigration, then this answer is probably setting off alarms.
