RNC Hispanic outreach director: Romney "still deciding" immigration position
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong
Updated: 5:50 p.m. ET
(CBS News) A press briefing meant to promote the Republican National Committee's efforts to reach out to Hispanic voters went awry when the committee's director of Hispanic Outreach said Mitt Romney had not yet established an immigration policy.
"My understanding that he is still deciding what his position on immigration is," said Bettina Inclan, the RNC's Director of Hispanic Outreach when asked how she planned to deal with concerns from Hispanic voters that Republican policies on immigration are too restrictive.
Within an hour of the briefing's conclusion, Inclan sent a tweet from her account saying, "I misspoke, Romney's position on immigration is clear," with a link to the page on Romney's immigration policy from his website.
However, Inclan was correct in suggesting that Romney's immigration policies are somewhat in flux. During the GOP primary, Romney moved to the right of most of his rivals on immigration, espousing a policy of "self-deportation" for people in the country and saying he would veto the Democratic version of a key initiative, the Dream Act. But recently Romney said he would consider supporting a new version of the Dream Act proposed by Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, It would allow some children of undocumented workers to remain in the country but, unlike the Democratic proposal, would offer no path to citizenship.
The RNC episode, which occurred the same day as President Obama's campaign released its second round of Spanish-language radio and TV ads, demonstrated the fledgling nature of the GOP operation as it gears up to try to reduce Obama's huge lead among Latino voters. Aside from a pledge to contact those voters and devote resources to bilingual communication, the RNC's plans are still in the works.
The Obama campaign's spokesman for Hispanic issues, Gabriela Domenzain, said in a statement after the RNC briefing, "Over the past year Mitt Romney has proven time and time again that he is the most extreme presidential candidate in modern history on immigration. His position may be inconvenient, but it has been clear. He has promised to veto the DREAM Act, thinks all undocumented immigrants should self-deport, has called the anti-immigrant Arizona law a 'model' for the nation and has paraded around the country with the nation's leading anti-immigrant voices."
At the briefing, Inclan argued that Latino voters had suffered under President Obama's economic policies and would be drawn to Republican ideas as a result. She steered clear of immigration for most of the briefing, but criticized Obama's deportation record when asked how Republicans would talk to Hispanic voters about the president's record.
"Hispanics are incredibly disappointed in president Obama on immigration," she said. "This is a president who as a candidate promised immigration reform, promised it in his first year, three years later we still don't even have a plan. He talked about uniting families and all he's done is deport more immigrants than any president in American history."
The RNC is revamping its efforts to reach out to Hispanics after Obama won them resoundingly with 67 percent support four years ago. Within the last few weeks, the committee named state directors for Hispanic outreach in New Mexico, North Carolina, Florida, Colorado, Nevada and Virginia -- all battleground states. In 2008, it had no Hispanic outreach directors.
RNC officials declined to say what percentage of the Hispanic vote Romney needs to win the election. They acknowledged they need to repair relationships with the community, without specifically acknowledging that harsh Republican rhetoric on immigration during the primary may have contributed to the problem.
The Obama campaign, meanwhile, released two Spanish-language television and radio ads that will air in Colorado, Nevada and Florida. The first features Latino campaign volunteers telling personal stories, and the second touts the president's work on the health care overhaul of 2010.
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WE HAVE 75 MILLION AMERICANS UNEMPLOYED---UNDER EMPLOYED---HOMELESS---JOBLESS--SLEEPING IN THEIR VEHICLES----STAYING WITH FAMILIES--FRIENDS...WHO IS LOOKING OUT FOR THEM ???
POLITICIANS ALL THEY CARE ABOUT IS THEIR JOBS AND GETTING THE HISPANIC VOTES,,,THEY ARE SELLING OUT THE COUNTRY TO HISPANICS IN EXCHANGE FOR THEIR VOTES..THAT IS ANTI AMERICA...
WE HAVE 75 MILLION AMERICANS UNEMPLOYED---UNDER EMPLOYED---HOMELESS---JOBLESS--SLEEPING IN THEIR VEHICLES----STAYING WITH FAMILIES--FRIENDS...WHO IS LOOKING OUT FOR THEM ???
POLITICIANS ALL THEY CARE ABOUT IS THEIR JOBS AND GETTING THE HISPANIC VOTES,,,THEY ARE SELLING OUT THE COUNTRY TO HISPANICS IN EXCHANGE FOR THEIR VOTES..THAT IS ANTI AMERICA...
WE HAVE 75 MILLION AMERICANS UNEMPLOYED---UNDER EMPLOYED---HOMELESS---JOBLESS--SLEEPING IN THEIR VEHICLES----STAYING WITH FAMILIES--FRIENDS...WHO IS LOOKING OUT FOR THEM ???
POLITICIANS ALL THEY CARE ABOUT IS THEIR JOBS AND GETTING THE HISPANIC VOTES,,,THEY ARE SELLING OUT THE COUNTRY TO HISPANICS IN EXCHANGE FOR THEIR VOTES..THAT IS ANTI AMERICA...
Now Romney can think about his postion on illegal immigration and it's okay.
What hypocrites!
GWB was much more visionary on the topic (nomatter how unpopular it is at present).
Truth of the matter is that Romney's Dad was born in a Mexican settlement that still thrives in Chihuahua and there is nothing wrong with that. The settlment is a Mormon Missionary outpost. As I say, someone has to carry on an adult conversation about Mexican immigration without dehumanizing all "illegal Aliens'. Bush had the timerity to do it; Romney doesn't.
There is an expose on both Romney's and Obama's Fathers origins in The Smithsonian this month.
"Return home, and I will send you jobs. They will be good American jobs paying whatever we can get away with in your native land, but they will be jobs. You will use the English you have learned to run our call centers. Some of you will provide the promise of services and others will adamantly insist that unemployed Americans pay their bills."
That is a pretty awful set of policy objectives that the Tea Party has put forward.
1. Ending legal immigration. For 400 years, immigration has provided the new blood and new ideas for America, people willing to work hard so their children will have a better future. And that is what the Tea Party wants to end. If a country does not grow, it withers.
2. End to family reunification. Now that a lot of people come from Mexico instead of Europe, the bigots want to stop this long-standing policy. But we know that Republicans have no heart.
3. "Sanctuary cities". These municipalities are simply trying to make it possible for people to come forward to report crimes without being persecuted. But, as I said above, Republicans and Tea Partiers are heartless. They would rather promote crime than the welfare of the displaced.
4. "Improve security over voting" is code for don't let inner-city minorities who don't have driver's licenses vote even though they have been registered for 30 years. It is outright racist bigotry of the worst kind, and the Justice Department has already invalidated as unconstitutional a North Carolina law to this effect.
5. So trying to feed one's family would be a crime. if we removed the 12,000,000 undocumented workers from the nation's payrolls, our economy would collapse. Production would drop about 10% and profits would be erased. Worse yet, food would not be harvested and houses would not be built. Be careful what you ask for.
6. E-Verify has so many problems with it that making it mandatory would bar many U.S. citizens from getting work. Remember when Senator Kennedy could not get on a plane because of the No-Fly List errors? Think of that a hundred-fold.
7. The result of that law would be to create a permanent non-citizen class of residents that could never get citizenship. That is a horrible idea that would only lead to internal strife. Remember the slave rebellion of Spartacus? Besides being extremely unwise, it is unjust and inhumane. This country was founded on the principle of equality of all people. The Tea Party and Republicans would end that forever.
Last year a local farm decided not to use the crews they had used for years. They advertised for American workers.
NO ONE SHOWED UP!
Most of their crop rotted in the field!
Our people do not have a work ethic any more. They'd rather pay high prices for the poisonous food we get from anywhere than actually work to save a local crop!
God help us!
It is going to be soooo entertaining watching Rmoney try to argue both sides of every issue.