A few debates ago, when the Republican candidates for president gathered in Florida, the then-frontrunner Rick Perry expressed compassion for illegal immigrants on stage ended up publicly apologizing and never recovering.
Lesson learned: stick to the hardline when it comes to immigration. Well, that was then. At the Thursday night’s debate — the last before Florida’s primary on Jan. 31 — Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney got into a very spirited debate about who would be nicer to grandmothers who happen to be in the United States illegally.
At issue was Romney’s call for self-deportation, his suggestion that illegal immigrants will just go back to where they came from if the laws are altered to make it impossible for them to work. Gingrich called the scheme “Obama-level fantasy” Wednesday, telling a Univision audience “[It] shows no concern for the humanity of people already here.”
For his part, Gingrich has called for a draft board-style process to provide a potential path to legal residency for illegal immigrants already in the country. Essentially, a community panel would decide who can stay and who gets deported. Gingrich says such a process is necessary because the American people don’t want to see elderly immigrants rounded up and shipped out. Here’s how he explained that at a debate in Iowa just before Thanksgiving:
“I do not believe that the people of the United States are going to take people who have been here a quarter century, who have children and grandchildren, who are members of the community, who may have done something 25 years ago, separate them from their families and expel them,” Gingrich said.
Those grandparents Gingrich referred to — specifically the grandmothers — became the focus on Thursday. Both Gingrich and Romney fell over each other to promise the Florida electorate (which has a sizable recent immigrant population) that Granny’s not getting shipped off if either of them is in the White House.
“I actually agree that self-deportation will occur if you are single, if you have only been here a short time,” Gingrich said. “The one group I singled out were people who have been here a very long time who are married, who may well have children and grandchildren and I would just suggest that grandmothers or grandfathers aren’t likely to self-deport.”
“I don’t think grandmothers and grandfathers will self-deport,” Gingrich added at the end of his answer. Romney was among those Republicans who jumped all over Gingrich when he said this in Iowa, hoping to knock out Gingrich as soft on immigration the way he did Rick Perry.
But on Friday, things were a little different.
Romney stood by his call for self-deportation, but tried to make it clear that grandma’s not on the agenda.
“I described following the law, which is to say, I’m not going around and rounding people up and deporting them,” Romney said. “I’m not going to find grandmothers and deport them. Those are your words. Not my words.”
Gingrich was not amused.
“Well — so we have gone — we’ve gone from your Washington attack when I first proposed this, and you said it was outrageous, it would be a magnet to you’re accepting the fact that, you know, a family is going to take care of their grandmother and grandfather,” he said.
But the real fight came from Romney, who made his stance as a “pro-immigrant” candidate by claiming to take offense at a Gingrich attack ad that labelled Romney as “anti-immigrant.”
Gingrich stood by the line, and Romney pounced.
“That’s simply inexcusable. And Sen. Marco Rubio came to my defense and said that ad was inflammatory and inappropriate,” Romney said. “I’m not anti-immigrant. My father was born in Mexico. My wife’s father was born in Wales. They came to this country. The idea that I’m anti-immigrant is repulsive.”
It’s worth noting that Romney has touted the endorsement of Kris Kobach, whom immigration advocates find repulsive, and has faced the ire of Latino groups because of it. Gingrich, on the other hand, has made an overt effort to reach out to Latinos.
