Mitt Romney has accused Barack Obama of playing politics with immigration, but refused to say whether he would repeal an order halting the deportation of hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants.
The Republican presidential candidate hit out at the White House’s move, announced Friday, as a “stop gap” measure, adding he would seek a “long-term solution” to the plight of up to 800,000 young people brought to the US illegally as children.
But, despite being asked three times if he would repeal the order in an interview with CBS’s Face the Nation, Romney refused to answer and did not offer an alternative.
He said: “With regard to these kids who were brought in by their parents through no fault of their own, there needs to be a long-term solution so that they know what their status is.”
During one of three times CBS anchor Bob Schieffer asked the would-be president if he would repeal the order, Romney said: “It would be overtaken by events, if you will, by virtue of my putting in place a long-term solution, with legislation which creates law that relates to these individuals such that they know what their setting is going to be, not just for the term of a president but on a permanent basis.”
He suggested that Obama’s move was motivated by politics and said that if he had “really wanted” to improve the situation, he would have taken it up in his “first three years not in the last few months”.
Asked if he thought the president did it for political reasons, he said: “Well that’s certainly a big part of the equation.”
Obama’s move to halt the deportation of the children of immigrants who have lived in fear of deportation presents a difficulty for Romney, who is competing with the president for Latino votes.
Romney is on record as opposing the Democrat-backed Dream Act which would provide a way for young children of immigrants to gain citizenship. He pledged to veto the legislation before the Iowa caucuses in January.
His comments on Sunday were a further demonstration of how his rhetoric on immigration has changed since the primary campaign ended and the election campaign began.
Asked about Romney’s criticisms of the move on ABC’s This Week, David Plouffe, Obama’s senior advisor, emphasised it was “not a permanent solution”, but a temporary fix following thwarted attempt by the Democrats to pass both the Dream Act and comprehensive immigration reforms.
“It’s ironic coming from Governor Romney, who said he would veto the Dream Act, whose immigration policy during the primary seemed to consist of just sending 11 million people home, asking them to self-deport,” said Plouffe.
“So we still need a permanent fix. The president would sign the Dream Act tomorrow, the next day, the day after that. That’s ultimately the only way to fix this, is for congressional action. But in the interim, this is a smart step by the homeland security department.”
Obama’s move bypasses Congress and partially achieves the aim of long-stalled legislation to help young illegal immigrants who went to college or served in the military. Under it, undocumented people living in the US can avoid deportation if they pass a series of criteria.
They include if they were brought to the US before the age of 16, if they are under 30, have been in the US for at least five consecutive years, have no criminal history, graduated from a US high school or passed a GED diploma or certificate or served in the military.
They also can apply for a work permit that will be good for two years with no limits on how many times it can be renewed.
In the interview, Romney also talked about what he would do if the justices threw out Obama’s healthcare bill. He said regardless of how the supreme court rules, he would “stop Obamacare in its tracks and return to the 10th Amendment that allows states to care for these issues on the way they think best”.
He said he wanted to make sure people “don’t have to worry about losing their insurance” if they already have a medical condition and change jobs, that individuals can still buy coverage, “on the same tax-advantage basis” as companies do and that states, aided by the federal government, take responsibility for the poor and uninsured.
