Romney makes stops in Ohio, stays noncommittal on reversal of new immigration plan

Romney makes stops in Ohio, stays noncommittal on reversal of new immigration plan

Associated Press

BRUNSWICK, Ohio

Mitt Romney, in Northeast Ohio today as part of his Rust Belt bus tour, is refusing to say that he would overturn President Barack Obama’s new policy allowing some young illegal immigrants to stay in the United States.

The Republican presidential candidate tells CBS” ‘’Face the Nation” that if he’s president, Obama’s executive order “would be overtaken by events ... by virtue of my putting in place a long-term solution.”

Romney was asked three times in the interview if he would overturn Obama’s order, but he didn’t directly answer the question. Instead, he said would work to pass a law to help those young people who were “brought in by their parents through no fault of their own.” Romney said he doesn’t know why Obama “feels stop-gap measures are the right way to go.”

The candidate’s comments represent a further softening of his rhetoric on immigration since the GOP primary campaign ended. For example, before the Iowa caucuses in January, when he faced the challenge of winning over the right-wing base of the GOP, he pledged to veto legislation backed by Democrats that would have created a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. Instead of emphasizing the plight of illegal immigrants, Romney focused on the consequences illegal immigration has for U.S. jobs.

The Obama administration said the policy change announced Friday will affect as many as 800,000 immigrants who have lived in fear of deportation. Obama’s move bypasses Congress and partially achieves the goals of the Democrats’ long-stalled legislation aimed at young illegal immigrants who went to college or served in the military.

Under the administration plan, illegal immigrants will be able to avoid deportation if they can prove they were brought to the United States before they turned 16 and are younger than 30, have been in the country for at least five continuous years, have no criminal history, graduated from a U.S. high school or earned 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.