Flashback: Romney Wasn't Always Firm on Immigration

I know, I know. Pointing out that Mitt Romney flip-flops like a fish out of water is no big news. It would be more surprising, frankly, to be able to point to an issue on which he hasn't held more than one position.

I was starting to think that issue was immigration. One of the few things that I've heard people say Romney has been firm on is immigration. And, in fact, folks have been contrasting Romney's supposed hard-line stance on illegals with Rick Perry's more "nuanced" approach.

So I thought I'd check. It turns out Romney wasn't nearly as troubled by the Bush-McCain-Kennedy Comprehensive Immigration Reform POS as the rest of us.

Here he is in 2005, saying that it was not an amnesty and that its path to citizenship was reasonable:

I think that an amnesty program is one which all of the illegal immigrants who are here are now citizens and walk in and get your citizenship. What the President has proposed and what Senator McCain and Cornyn have proposed are quite different from that. They require people signing up for a, well registering and receiving if you will, a number, a registration number, then working here for six years and paying taxes. Not taking benefits, health, Medicaid, food stamps, and so forth. Not getting benefits. And then at the end of that period, registering to become a citizen or applying to become a citizen and paying a fee. And those are the things that are being considered, and I think that those are reasonable proposals.

Romney started saying in 2007 that he opposed the path to citizenship and the McCain-Kennedy amnesty proposal. There's the expected flop.

What does he really believe about immigration policy? I'm sure he'll tell us again.

posted by Gabriel Malor at 07:29 AM

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