Mitt Romney

RECENT POSTS

May 9, 2012 | 5:06 PM | By

Romney may not be ‘still deciding’ on immigration, but the Latino problem remains

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images News

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, left, with Univision's Jorge Ramos in a "Meet the Candidate" forum in Miami, January 25, 2012

In the day since it was uttered, news reports have alternately called a Republican National Committee staffer’s remark to reporters yesterday about Mitt Romney “still deciding what his position on immigration is,” a flub, a gaffe, a snag, and a disaster.

The latter may be an overstatement, but it still wasn’t pretty. Bettina Inclán, who earlier this year became the RNC’s Hispanic Outreach Director, told reporters at a Washington, D.C. press event when asked a question about Romney and immigration that “I think, as a candidate, to my understanding, that he’s still deciding what his position on immigration is.”

An RNC spokeswoman quickly stepped in to correct her, and Inclán later tweeted that she “misspoke,” saying GOP presidential candidate Romney’s position is clear.

Inclán’s gaffe, seized upon by reporters and by the Obama administration, was read by some as a slip revealing Romney’s back-and-forth on immigration as he’s tried to appeal to both immigration hardliners and Latino voters. But voices on both sides have argued that his position has been clear enough, whether one likes it or not.

Here’s what Washington Post editorial writer Lee Hockstader wrote today:

In fact, Romney’s position on immigration reform is well-delineated: he’s against it. He wants illegal immigrants to “self-deport,” which is a polite way of declaring open season on them in state legislatures so that they’ll leave the country “voluntarily.” He opposes the DREAM Act, which would set a path to legalization for undocumented immigrants, brought here as children by their parents, if they attend college or serve in the military. And he holds up Arizona’s show-me-your-papers immigration law as a national model.

The bigger issue highlighted by the snag-flub-gaffe-disaster is that with six months to November, the Romney campaign and the GOP in general still have a long and difficult way to go in their quest to win much-needed Latino voters. And yesterday’s incident didn’t help matters.

Liz Peek wrote an optimistic piece yesterday for Fox News in which she suggests that Romney really push the economic angle to make inroads with Latinos:

Americans rate jobs their number one priority, and Latinos are no exception. For Hispanics, education comes next. Immigration – the issue of contention between Romney and Latinos – ranks only sixth, after education, health care, taxes and the federal budget deficit.

Romney can chip away at Obama’s formidable Hispanic following by focusing on jobs.

Others say it’s wishful thinking. As Hockstader wrote in the Post:

It doesn’t take a soothsayer to see that Republicans are going to lose the Hispanic vote. The only mystery is by how much — and that’s a key question.

In the Los Angeles Times, Paul West floated this much-discussed possible way out:

A possible escape hatch for Romney in the general election would be to put Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a Cuban American, on the ticket. Rubio is currently crafting an alternative to the Dream Act that Romney has yet to endorse or oppose.

But it’s an idea that receives a resounding “meh” from most Latinos, writes Erika Bolstad in the Miami Herald politics blog:

Rising Republican star though he may be, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’snational appeal may be tepid among the Hispanic voters both parties are so desperately courting this election year.

To win the presidential election, Republicans would like to repeat the success of former President George W. Bush, who garnered 44 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004. Democrats will need to capture a larger share by at least matching the 67 percent President Obama received in 2008.

In a year when the economy and unemployment dominate the national debate, it’s unlikely that merely having a Latino as a vice-presidential running mate is going to be enough to sway most of the country’s 12 million registered Hispanic voters, say political experts on the Hispanic vote.

Ditto on that from the Houston Chronicle, which reported poll results saying much the same.

The economy message isn’t lost on Inclán, who after backtracking on her earlier comment tweeted: “Why don’t we talk about the real issue at hand, Obama’s policies have failed the Hispanic community” with a link to a list topped by unemployment.
FILED UNDER: Bettina Inclan, Mitt Romney, Republican National Committee, RNC
April 23, 2012 | 11:58 AM | By

The legacy of SB 1070: Three ways it changed the immigration landscape

Photo by Leslie Berestein Rojas/KPCC

Anti-SB 1070 protesters in downtown Phoenix on the day the law took effect, July 29, 2010

Two years ago today, Arizona’s Gov. Jan Brewer signed into law a bill known as SB 1070. Already, the strict anti-illegal immigration bill had caused heated debate in and out of Arizona, most notably because it would make it a misdemeanor to lack proper immigration documents in the state – and because it would empower local police to check for immigration status if they had “reasonable suspicion” that someone was in the country illegally.

Back then, I wrote about the broad implications that SB 1070 would likely have. Would there be a political ripple effect, with other states considering similar laws? Would some immigrants decide they’d had enough and leave the state? Would it change the political discourse on immigration, with politicians basing their platforms on strict policies? And if tested in court, would it hold up?

Two years later, the answer to most of those questions is a resounding yes. Save for the latter one, to be decided soon enough as SB 1070 heads to the U.S. Supreme Court this week.

In the relatively short time it has existed, SB 1070 has had a profound effect on the immigration landscape, politically and in human terms. Although four of its most controversial provisions (including the “reasonable suspicion” checks) were blocked by a federal judge in Phoenix in July 2010, just before it went into effect, the law’s implications have been broad indeed.

Here are three aspects of SB 1070′s legacy so far:

1) The ripple effect in the states

Since 2010, dozens of states have introduced their own anti-illegal immigration laws, some modeled directly after SB 1070 and written with the help of the same legal counsel. SB 1070-style laws have been enacted since in Alabama, Georgia, Utah, Indiana and South Carolina.

These new laws are just part of what’s been happening in other states. The National Conference of State Legislatures reported late last year that in 2011, there were 1,607 bills and resolutions relating to immigrants and refugees introduced in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, up from a little more than 1,400 in 2010. Bolstered by the relative success of SB 1070, immigration restriction-minded legislators in many states banded together to introduce new crackdowns.

Many bills went nowhere, but there were some bold ones introduced, including a series of bills last year intended to end birthright citizenship for the U.S.-born babies of undocumented immigrants that was introduced in states like Arizona, Indiana and Iowa. Also voted down was an Arizona “omnibus” bill to deny public services to undocumented immigrants, similarly to what California’s ill-fated Proposition 187 proposed in 1994, and an Arizona bill requiring that hospitals check for patients’ immigration status.

In the states that have enacted SB 1070-style laws, all of these measures face their own court challenges. Federal judges have blocked several of these laws’ most stringent provisions, including a controversial one in Alabama that would require public schools to check the immigration status of students.

In some of these states, judges are waiting to see how the Supreme Court rules on SB 1070. The justices are to weigh whether SB 1070 is in fact preempted by federal immigration law, as the federal government has challenged. If the high court decides that enforcing immigration law is strictly a federal task, it could take the air out of the other state measures; it not, it would empower state legislators to continue with these and similar state laws.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Jan Brewer, Mitt Romney, SB 1070, Sen. Russell Pearce, U.S. Supreme Court
April 20, 2012 | 4:35 PM | By

Does Rubio’s no mean yes, or does he really mean no?

Photo by Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida

Florida’s Republican Sen. Marco Rubio has said a couple of times in the last week that he has no intention of running for vice president with GOP presidential nominee-apparent Mitt Romney, but that hasn’t stopped the speculation that he still might.

His seeming Freudian slip this week during a meeting with press didn’t help: “If in four, five, six, seven years from now, if I do a good job as vice president – I’m sorry, as senator – I’ll have the chance to do all sorts of things.” It prompted laughs and of yes, more speculation.

Rubio is one of a few potential veep picks, among them former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. But Bush, while he said he’d consider it, passed the buck back to Rubio in a recent interview, calling Rubio “possibly the best” choice.

The bulk of the nation’s Latino voters might be harder to convince. In spite of a recent turnabout that has included developing a stripped-down version of the Development, Relief and Education for Immigrant Minors (DREAM) Act without a clear path to citizenship, Rubio is still remembered for his tough talk on immigration in 2010. He also belongs to specific subset of Latino voters, i.e. conservative Cuban American South Floridians, who have relatively little in common politically with most Latino voters in other parts of the country.

The Romney campaign has conceded that it needs to try harder with Latino voters, with Romney recently remarking that the GOP must draw Latinos, who presently support President Obama by a wide margin, or it “spells doom for us.” But critics have pointed out that naming the wrong Latino as vice-presidential nominee could be equally destructive if perceived as pandering.

Other potential nominees whose names have been floated include former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. The latter two are Indian American. Another possibility mentioned has been New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, though she’s also said that she’s not interested.

Bush, who might eventually follow his brother and father in a run for the White House, could wind up the ideal middle ground for Romney: a member of a dynastic GOP family who also speaks decent Spanish, is moderate on immigration, and whose wife happens to be Mexican.

As for Rubio, no telling yet if no really means no. CNN’s Candy Crowley will no doubt try to get it out of him during an interview airing Sunday on the network’s State of the Union program.

FILED UNDER: Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Mitt Romney, Vice president
April 18, 2012 | 12:04 PM | By

Romney prepares to tackle his ‘Latino problem’: Three signs

Photo by Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images

Mitt Romney, March 2010

Now that Rick Santorum has dropped out the race and Mitt Romney is fairly assured of the Republican presidential nomination, his campaign seems to be working double-time to woo Latino voters.

It’s not going to be easy. Throughout his campaign so far, Romney has taken a hard line on immigration, alienating Latino voters on an issue that may not rank as high as the economy, but is one that Latinos tend to take personally. And while immigration has been a sore point for both Romney and President Obama, Latino voters still favor Obama by a wide margin.

But recent developments in the Romney camp suggest there will be a heavy focus on reaching Latino voters as November nears, starting with:

1) Romney distancing himself from Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state and activist attorney who has written many recent state anti-illegal immigration laws. From ABC News:

A few months ago, Romney said in a press release that he was happy to have Kobach “on the team,” and was looking forward to working with him to combat illegal immigration. Kobach told  reporters that he was advising the governor on immigration issues.

But a Romney spokesperson  told Politico’s Glenn Thrush on Tuesday that Kobach is a “supporter,” not an adviser. Kobach told National Journal later Tuesday that his role hasn’t changed and he’s still an informal adviser, and blamed Democrats for making it appear as if his job had been modified.

2) The Romney campaign hiring Latino-friendly strategist Ed Gillespie. From The Hill:

Mitt Romney’s hiring of Republican strategist Ed Gillespie is being seen as a sign the campaign will heavily court Hispanic voters — perhaps at the expense of immigration hard-liners in the party.

Gillespie, a former head of the Republican National Committee, has long advocated an aggressive outreach to the Hispanic community. He helped found the Republican State Leadership Committee, a group that recruits and trains GOP candidates for office and has emphasized finding female and minority candidates. He also heads up Resurgent Republic, an organization focused on messaging to independents, including Hispanic swing voters.

3) Romney acknowledging that he has a Latino problem. From MSNBC:

Lost in the other statements Romney made at that Sunday fundraiser in Florida was his admission that he needs to move to the center to win over Latinos. ”We have to get Hispanic voters to vote for our party,” Romney said, observing that polls show Latinos breaking in huge percentages for President Obama “spells doom for us.”

Romney even said the GOP should offer something like a “Republican DREAM Act” to help woo Latinos. But there’s a challenge here for Romney, and it’s the same one Meg Whitman faced in 2010: How do you move back to center on immigration after running so hard to the right during the primary?

Interesting question raised there: How do you move back to center? It’s a problem that (speaking of a “Republican DREAM Act”) has also dogged Florida’s Sen. Marco Rubio, whose earlier hardline rhetoric on immigration isn’t helping now that he’s floating a stripped-down version of the Democratic-backed Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act.

Which brings us back to other ways in which the Romney campaign may try to appeal to Latino voters, i.e. a Latino vice-presidential pick, who could well turn out to be Rubio. But that’s for another post.

FILED UNDER: 2012 election, Ed Gillespie, Kris Kobach, Mitt Romney, Romney's "Latino problem"
January 31, 2012 | 1:59 PM | By

A reading (and listening) list for the Florida primary

Photo by Calsidyrose/Fickr (Creative Commons)

It may or may not be a stretch to call it “the Latino primary,” as some have called it, but there’s no question that Florida’s sizeable and evolving Latino electorate will play a big role in determining whether Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney (the likely winner) or Newt Gingrich wins today’s primary election in the Sunshine State.

As they and the other GOP candidates have spent the past two weeks wooing Florida’s Latinos, a good part of the media discussion has revolved around immigration and how much it matters to Latino voters, and whether the harsh rhetoric seen earlier in the campaign could cost the party in November. There are broader questions, such as whether Florida’s changing Latino voter profile will once again favor President Obama, who has been struggling with Latinos, or the GOP, which is struggling even more. Nationwide, even as Obama’s Latino approval ratings slip, does a Republican candidate stand a chance with Latino voters in the fall?

Here’s a five-item reading (and listening) list as the election results come in:

In Florida, a changing Latino mosaic reshapes politics This has been an undercurrent of the Florida coverage lately, including in a post last week on Multi-American, but this Chicago Tribune piece illustrates the demographic changes well. In a nutshell, appealing to conservative Cuban American anti-Castro hardliners (as both Romney and Gingrich tried to do last week) doesn’t work as well as it used to, with younger Cuban Americans, Puerto Ricans, South American and Mexican immigrants now making up a growing part of Florida’s Latino electorate.

Why Florida’s Latino Republicans tilt toward Mitt Romney The Christian Science Monitor explores reasons why Romney, who hasn’t exactly won over Latino fans for his strict position on immigration, is leading in Florida anyway. According to the story, his private-sector career could be appealing to “entrepreneurial-minded Hispanics.”

Immigration rattles the Republicans Immigration is not the be-all issue for Latino voters, as Romney’s ratings in Florida show. But then again, he’s only competing against fellow Republicans. The party as a whole had had trouble attracting Latino voters, with the tough immigration rhetoric that appeals to some GOP faithful alienating swing voters and even some conservative Latinos. This Salon piece delves into the quandary the candidates have found themselves in, something that could hurt the party in the long run.

Hardliners and Swing Voters: Florida’s Fractures Latino Voters Is immigration as big of an issue among Florida’s Latino voters, including Cubans (who usually get to stay if they make it to U.S. soil illegally) and Puerto Ricans (who get automatic U.S. citizenship)? It depends on who you talk to. This piece from WNYC breaks down the GOP’s Latino problems in and beyond Florida.

The GOP’s fight for Latino voters in Florida What lessons can be learned from the way the Republican candidates have attempted to woo Florida’s Latino voters? And if immigration isn’t going to win Latino votes for the party nominee in November, what, if anything, might? Republican political analyst Hector Barajas and Democratic strategist Roger Salazar shared their insights in this segment last week on KPCC’s AirTalk.

And rest assured, there will be plenty more to read about all this tomorrow.

FILED UNDER: Florida electorate, Florida primary, Florida voters, Latino vote, Latino voters, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich
January 25, 2012 | 2:55 PM | By

‘I’m going to move to Gdańsk’: More self-deportation satire (Video)

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s comment about “self-deportation” during Monday’s debate in Florida, referring to what others have long called “attrition through enforcement,” has by now drawn an equal share of criticism and cracks.

Among the latest in the cracks department: SelfDeport.org, a spoof site that was in the works before the debate, but which launched yesterday and is now basking in the campaign glow.

The “Patriots for Self-Deportation” behind it advocate removing oneself to the land of one’s ancestors, or as they put it, “the scene of the crime.” From their press release, which quotes a spokesman named Stephen Winters:

“A surprising number of authentic patriots have found in their own genealogical searches that one or more of their ancestors came here or stayed here illegally, and yet continued to make a living in this country and have children who in turn became instant citizens,” said Winters. “Some patriots, faced with this moral dilemma, have decided to set an example for others. Knowing that their own presence in this country is not on moral solid ground, they have decided to demonstrate the highest level of civic dedication and sacrifice, and engage in self-deportation.”

The site even has a “How to Self Deport” section with a list of tips, which starts:

1. Get background info: http://www.ancestry.com/learn/contentcenters/contentCenter.aspx?page=court#probateTypes

2. Retrieve all your family member’s records: http://www.genealogy.com/47_neill_print.html

3. Or just use a service like this one: https://www.familysearch.org/

The next step is to decide where to deport to. Sometmes if your family immigrated Illegally to the United States of America long ago, it is hard to decide which country to return to. We suggest returning to the scene of the crime, or where your Illegal ancestor came from.

And unlike the comic self-deportation pioneer Daniel D. Portado, whose hilarious This American Life segment was resurrected on Twitter after the debate, you don’t have to be Latino. On the site, would be “self-deporters” share their stories about plans to return to Poland and Sweden.

Ah, there’s nothing like an election year for comedy.

FILED UNDER: Mitt Romney, Patriots for Self-Deportation, Self-deportation, SelfDeport.org
January 25, 2012 | 7:44 AM | By

Is ‘Mexican Mitt’ a pocho? A peek behind the Twitter parody

Screen shot from Pocho.com

On yesterday’s Patt Morrison show on KPCC, cartoonist and funny man Lalo Alcaraz revealed – sort of – that’s he’s “a hundred percent” behind the Mitt Romney twitter parody, @Mexican Mitt.

That meaning a hundred percent behind “Mexican Mitt” as a supporter, of course.

“I think we had a misunderstanding, Patt,” Alcaraz joked. “When I said I was the man behind Mexican Mitt, I meant I am behind him a hundred percent, as (are) all Latinos.”

Alcaraz, who recently relaunched the Pocho.com political satire site, was cagey about @Mexican Mitt when I asked him about it recently, too. But on air, his “Ajuua!!” does sound suspiciously like that of the charro suit-clad Romney parody, who has more than 3,000 followers.

For those not familiar with @MexicanMitt, the humor revolves around Republican presidential candidate Romney’s family roots in Mexico, something he’s only recently begun talking about on the campaign trail. He’s the descendant of Mormons who moved to Mexico from the U.S. in the late 1800s to avoid anti-polygamy laws. His grandfather and father were born in the northern state of Chihuahua. His father came to the U.S. with his parents at age five.

Unlike the reserved real Mitt, “Mexican Mitt” is, um, outspoken, with a personality not unlike that of the crazy uncle who is the life of the family party, that is until he starts offending the guests.

In what Alcaraz described on the show as a “kind of this norteño, weird shouting Spanish” (and hilarious Spanglish), “Mexican Mitt” opines heartily on the presidential race. This week he provided running commentary on the Florida debate (his response to the real Romney’s self-deportation comment was “I’M SELF DEPORTING TO MY RANCHO, for the VICTORY PARTY! Ajuua!”), saying things the real candidates never would (“I MADE UN CHINGO DE DINERO!” or “I am NOT GONNA aoplogize for ESTEALING YOUR MONEY LEGALLY! Ajua!”).

Beyond @MexicanMitt, the “La Cucaracha” cartoonist also talked about his latest project, the revived Pocho.com, and the evolution of pochismo. (The term “pocho” began as an insulting way to describe Mexican Americans who had lost their cultural connection to Mexico, but has since been reclaimed as a badge of pride.) He had a nice description of that evolution at the end:

“The pocho concept, it’s expanding to everyone…there might be a better word for it in Japanese…but you know what, ‘pocho’ applies to everybody, because we are all moving within different cultures. Many of us are married to people from other cultures. We are creating pochismo every minute of the day. Every time you drive by the sign that says ‘pastrami burrito,’ that is pochismo right there.”

Audio from the complete interview can be downloaded here.

FILED UNDER: Lalo Alcaraz, Mexican Mitt, Mitt Romney, Pocho, Pocho.com, Presidential election
January 24, 2012 | 7:26 AM | By

Romney’s ‘self-deportation’ is not a new concept – does it work?

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s line during last night’s debate in Florida about “self-deportation” has drawn its share of attention (and cracks) by now, but the concept he’s talking about isn’t a novel one. Though whether it really works as intended is another question.

Questioned about what he’d do with undocumented immigrants if he doesn’t plan to round them up and deport them, Romney talked about making it impossible for them to get jobs, referencing the federal E-Verify status-check tool used by some employers (and which some states have made mandatory). The idea would be to make life so difficult for undocumented immigrants that they would leave of their own volition, a concept known as “attrition through enforcement,” which advocates of tighter immigration restrictions have supported for years.

It’s this concept that lies at the heart of Arizona’s SB 1070 and similarly strict state laws enacted in other states recently, including laws with an E-Verify component. Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state and attorney (and recent Romney backer) who helped draft SB 1070 and similar laws, wrote about attrition through enforcement as an alternative to mass deportations several years ago in a law journal. The article begins:

For years, the public debate about illegal immigration has been gripped by a false dichotomy. We have been told that there are only two choices in addressing the fact that twelve to twenty million aliens are unlawfully present in the United States: either attempt to round them up and remove them all, or grant a massive amnesty and provide all (or virtually all) illegal aliens legal status.

In a piece in Mother Jones related to Romney’s statement, Adam Serwer cites another years-old take on the concept from the immigration-restriction advocacy think tank Center for Immigration Studies and how the “choke points” it refers to have been applied at the state level:

We can see how this concept has been applied in states like Arizona and Alabama, where local authorities have been empowered to act as enforcers of immigration law. Alabama takes the “choke point” theory even more seriously than Arizona—everything from enrolling in school to seeking health treatment has been turned into a so-called “choke-point.”

The piece also cites an interview with Kobach in which he refers to self-deportation as what’s been occurring in Alabama, where unauthorized immigrants have left the state in the wake of its recently enacted anti-illegal immigration law, prompting a labor shortage in the farm industry.

But is what’s happening in fact self-deportation, or are people going elsewhere in the U.S.? While undocumented immigrants are indeed leaving states like Alabama and Georgia, both of which have enacted tough measures with an E-Verify component, there’s still no hard evidence of an exodus from the country, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, which each year tracks the estimated undocumented population. Pew’s studies have shown that this population has declined significantly since 2007, when it peaked at around 12 million, but attribute it more to a steep decline in entries, noting that undocumented immigrants are tending to stay long-term.

From one recent Pew report:

The rising share of unauthorized immigrants who have been in the U.S. for a long duration reflects the fact that the sharpest growth in this population occurred during the late 1990s and early 2000s—and that the inflow has slowed down significantly in recent years, as the U.S. economy has sputtered and border enforcement has tightened. It also reflects the fact that relatively few long-duration unauthorized immigrants have returned to their countries of origin.

In any case, Romney’s remark is making the rounds. Some of the attention on Twitter has been of the less-serious sort, especially given Romney’s familial ties to Mexico. The Romney parody Twitter alter-ego @Mexican Mitt tweeted: “I’M SELF DEPORTING TO MY RANCHO, for the VICTORY PARTY! Ajuua!”

And fans of self-described “noted Hispanic self-deportationist” Daniel D. Portado (@DanielDportado) tweeted out links to a comic gem from the vault of This American Life in which Ira Glass interviewed D. Portado about – what else - his “self-deportation” movement.

During last night’s debate, D. Portado tweeted: “I invented Self Deportation, please remember this on your way out.”

FILED UNDER: Florida debate, Mitt Romney, Republican debate, Self-deportation