Byron York, one of the growing number of conservatives exasperated with Romney's refusal to take an immigration position, has a good piece up on Romney's inability to even form a sentence on the Supreme Court's SB 1070 mixed decision. This is surprsing, as Romney publicly approved of SB 1070 during the GOP Primary (#memories) and got anti-foreigner fist bumps from AZ Scapegoater in Chief Jan Brewer and Deputy Pitbull Joe Arpaio. Romney was even in Arizona when the ruling was handed down.
And yet:
With Romney in Arizona for fundraising events, spokesman Rick Gorka met reporters on board the candidate's plane. What followed was an excruciating back-and-forth in which the reporters pressed Gorka to say whether Romney agreed or disagreed with the decision. Gorka wouldn't go along. "The governor believes the states have the rights to craft their own immigration laws, especially when the federal government has failed to do so," Gorka said. But did Romney have a specific reaction to the Arizona decision? The spokesman wouldn't say, no matter how many times the question was asked.
The Romney campaign was not taken by surprise by the ruling. It was widely expected that the court would release its Arizona opinion on Monday, and Romney just happened to be in Arizona, leading observers to figure he would have something definitive to say about the subject. Yet he did not.
York points out that the ruling was actually doubly bad for Romney. It upheld the most controversial—and arguably, most ineffective in terms of combating illegal immigration—portion of SB 1070, the requirement that local police officers inquire after immigration status of detainees if they feel they have cause, effectively making being looking Mexican probable cause in Arizona. But the Court also struck down the three provisions that granted the states more power to enact their own immigration laws. In fact, this decision will be taken as a warning to all other states to not even think of crafting their own immigration laws, even if said laws don't come into conflict with their federal counterparts.
| Related: Mitt Romney's Big Immigration Speech Is A Bust |
It's no wonder Romney doesn't want anything to do with this decision. His "immigration is up to the states" platform, vague and meaningless and nonsensical as it is (what is a federal issue if not immigration?) was definitively shot down, but the part of the bill most antagonistic toward Latino voters was upheld. If I were Romney, I wouldn't want to be anywhere near the decision either.* (Which also means I wouldn't have been in Arizona—methinks Romney was expecting a different outcome.)
Anyhoo, we're still waiting for Romney's immigration position. Even before SCOTUS' ruling, Romney "states' rights" argument was weak sauce, as it wasn't actually an argument but the passing of the buck. Romney has been simultaneously chiding Obama for not coming up with a comprehensive strategy for combating the illegal immigration problem and steadfastly refusing to do so himself. Romney has spoken only about eliminating bureaucratic red tape from the legal naturalization process, and not of any of the squirmy issues of illegal immigration (DREAM Act, work permits, etc.). He also ignores the fact that Obama has massively increased border security and deportations, to the detriment of his standing among Hispanics (they're cool now). And that's all before we get to the fact that there is no illegal immigration problem.
It's time to consider the fact that even someone NOT named Mitt Romney would be tongue-tied at this point.
* If I were Romney, a lot of things would be different. #backsagainstthewall
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