Mitt Romney will offer detailed remarks on immigration on Thursday in a speech to Latino leaders in Orlando — but not a moment sooner.
Romney campaign policy director Lanhee Chen promised on a conference call Wednesday the issue would be one of several discussed at NALEO’s annual conference, where both Romney and President Obama will address the gathering of elected Latino officials later this week. But Chen refused to offer any details about the substance of Romney’s comments.
“Gov. Romney is going to address immigration tomorrow when he addresses NALEO,” Chen said on the call. “It’s an important issue and I hope you’ll stay tuned to the governor’s remarks.”
Romney has been elusive on whether he would roll back Obama’s recently unveiled immigration measure to help young undocumented immigrants avoid deportation, and has avoided addressing immigration even in speeches to Latino groups.
The Romney campaign has continued to make its pitch to Latinos entirely jobs-focused, arguing that Hispanics have been hard-hit economically under Obama.
“We’ll have a few more things to say there about immigration,” Chen said of the Orlando speech. “But I think the one thing we ought to focus on when we think about immigration and its impact, particularly on the Latino community, is to think about how this economy failed the Latino community.”
Deputy communications director Kristy Campbell turned down immigration-related questions on the call, promising more details in the run-up to tomorrow’s speech. They also declined to comment on the economic effects of President Obama’s decision to stop deporting young immigrants.
