Posted on 11/09/2007 6:22:08 PM PST by Doofer
Romney puffs up his record.
Summary
Mitt Romney casts himself as tough on illegal immigration in a new ad in which he says that, as Massachusetts governor, "I authorized the State Police to enforce immigration laws." He doesn't mention that his order never took effect. It came in the closing days of his administration and was rescinded by his successor, as we wrote back in August.
He also promises, "As president, I'll . . . cut funding for sanctuary cities." Maybe so, but as governor he took no action against several such towns in his state.
We find Romney misleading on both counts.
Analysis
Romney's ad began airing Nov. 1 and has run in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Cops on the Case
Romney claims he put state troopers on the trail of illegals in his state.
Romney: As governor, I authorized the state police to enforce immigration laws.
Well, yes. But, as we noted in August, he didn't do so until he had less than a month left in his term. He was already considering running for president, and the new governor-elect was expected to rescind the arrangement.
Romney began talking about giving troopers the power to make arrests on immigration charges earlier in 2006, but he didn't sign an agreement with the federal government - a necessary condition for that authority to be granted - until Dec. 13 of that year.
Romney was scheduled to leave office Jan. 4, 2007. Democrat Deval Patrick, who had won the race to succeed Romney, had already said the program was a "bad idea" because troopers were busy enough as it was.
Sure enough, Patrick rescinded the agreement within his first week in office so troopers could "focus on enforcing Massachusetts laws." The policy never had a chance to take effect, because those troopers chosen to carry it out hadn't yet begun a required six-week training course.
Gimme Shelter
Romney shifts to promise-making mode as he continues:
Romney: As President, I'll oppose amnesty, cut funding for sanctuary cities and secure our borders.
Romney might well get tough on sanctuary cities in the future, but he didn't when he was governor.
During his tenure, at least four Massachusetts cities enacted or renewed legislation declaring themselves sanctuaries for illegal immigrants. Brookline and Cambridge reaffirmed their longtime status as sanctuary cities in so many words.
Somerville and Orleans didn't officially deem themselves "sanctuaries," but Somerville affirmed its "long-standing policies in support of all immigrants," while Orleans forbade city officials from turning in illegal immigrants without probable cause.
We asked Romney's campaign if he had acted against these cities, but they didn't provide us with any examples. As far as we were able to determine in our own research, Romney made no attempts to penalize, censure, or cut funding to them.
I believe Reagan, I just don’t think we’ll ever get a 100% what we want. We can persist for 75% of what we want, but we’ll never have everything.
No, we certainly won’t all of what we want, but must keep fighting so that we can get as much as we can.
BUMP
ping
More bull shit from a Liberal.
In NH several of our local CLEO's arrested illegals based on our trespass laws. The liberal judges threw out the cases. This happened long before Mitt had the idea.
Maybe he read about in the NH newspapers while at his vacation home in northern NH.
Doubt it, you have read all of Mitt's BS, he has posted which is not research. All you do is repeat what Mitt says. Why don't you try to disprove it?
I didn’t know that Joe Arpaio endorsed him....that is outstanding!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.