With less support than he'd expected from social conservatives, Mitt Romney seems to be attempting to make his stance on immigration what differentiates him from the other frontrunners. In recent Iowa campaign stops and ad spots, he's taken on Giuliani and Huckabee for supporting tuition breaks and other programs that help illegal immigrants or their children, suggesting that their policies are more like those of Democrats. "There are those people in both parties who are in a sanctuary state of mind, who believe in sanctuary cities, who believe in policies which are sanctuary in nature," said Romney in a campaign stop yesterday.
He's referring to Huckabee's push during his tenure as Arkansas governor to extend in-state tuition breaks to the children of illegal immigrants, and his stance that while illegal immigrants should be deported, there are basic rights guaranteed to their children born in the U.S. With Giuliani, he's referring to the former mayor's endorsement of lowered tuition rates for undocumented immigrants attending the City University of New York.
Romney vetoed legislation to create a similar initiative in Massachusetts, but as his opponents have been quick to point out, at least three Massachusetts cities offered sanctuary to immigrants in the country illegally. So the "I'm tougher on illegal immigration" stance seems like a weak one to take at this point.
More importantly, while he's trying to cast them as pro-immigrant, their policies have been far from it. Giuliani advocates building a border fence and kicking out everyone that's currently here illegally. Huckabee's support is limited to the children of illegal immigrants born in the United States (who, you may recall, are U.S. citizens) and he includes the "unborn" in that as part of his "pro-life" beliefs. He's also said that he thinks that undocumented immigrants should be arrested and deported. So taking the "soft on immigration" tack isn't very accurate at all, and most likely won't help Romney out.
--Kate Sheppard
