Romney refused to take Obama's immigration bait

Mitt Romney has outfoxed the Obama Campaign and its main stream media allies.

As explained by Breitbart’s John Nolte, Obama’s extralegal scheme to grant amnesty/immunity to certain “younger” illegal aliens was a clever attempt set to trap Romney in a treacherous catch-22 position:

This was the plan:

1. Obama releases the news on Friday in order to affect the Sunday talk shows. (Team Obama also knew Romney would be on “Face the Nation” with their water-carrier Bob Schieffer).

2. As they always do, the Sunday talk shows comply with White House strategy by making Obama’s compassion and political brilliance The Big Story. This is also a move to set up the narrative for the coming week regardless of  how Romney answers the repeal question.

3. Regardless of how he answers the question, Romney enters a world of media-created hurt for the following week.

Obama’s media allies did their part:

  • On CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Bob Schieffer asked Romney over and over and over again whether he would repeal Obama’s extralegal amnesty/immunity scheme.
  • CNN’s Jack Cafferty asked, “Why is Mitt Romney refusing to answer questions on Pres. Obama’s new immigration policy?”
  • On MSNBC’s Martin Bashir show, The Guardian’s Ana Marie Cox, Democratic strategist Julian Epstein and The Hill’s Karen Finney went on and on about “Romney’s non-answer.”

We could list many more, but I think you get the idea.

Of course Romney did in fact have a response to Obama’s scheme. On Friday, Romney said the problem of young illegal immigrants requires a long term solution and Obama’s scheme will make a long term solution more difficult to achieve.

“I believe the status of young people who come here through no fault of their own is an important matter to be considered and should be solved on a long term basis so they know what their future would be in this country. I think the action the president took today makes it more difficult to reach that long-term solution because an executive order is of course just a short term matter. It can be reversed by subsequent presidents.”

Romney also explained on “Face the Nation” that Obama’s extralegal scheme is a stopgap measure for a long-term problem driven in “large part” by politics:

First of all, we have to secure the border. We need to have an employment verification system to make sure that those that are working here in this country are here legally and then with regards to these kids who were brought in by their parents through no fault of their own, there needs to be a long-term solution so they know what their status is. This is something Congress has been working on, and I thought we are about to see some proposals brought forward by Senator Marco Rubio and by Democrat senators, but the President jumped in and said I’m going to take this action. He called it a stopgap measure.

[. . .]

He was President for the last three and a half years, did nothing on immigration. Two years, he had a Democrats’ House in Senate, did nothing of permanent or– or long-term basis.

As for the oft repeated repeal question, Romney addressed that as well:

Well, it would be overtaken by events, if you will, by virtue of my putting in place a long-term solution with legislation which creates law that relates to these individuals, such that they know what their status is going to be.

In other words, Romney proposes to do the truly right thing — get Congress to pass legislation to legally address the problem of youngsters made illegal aliens by their parents.

This is a good time to remember that Obama announced his new amnesty/immunity scheme in a desperate attempt to change the subject from his “doing fine” reelection message, to gain favor with the Latino electorate unhappy with Obama’s ongoing backdoor amnesty program, and to stop the growing popularity Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida’s DREAM Act light.

Contrary to White House senior adviser David Plouffe’s claim that Obama’s amnesty/immunity scheme was not political, there is no doubt that it was indeed political. After all, there is even video of Obama saying, less than six months ago, that he has no authority to enact such a change in immigration law. You can watch the video here.

Unfortunately, Romney was proved correct about Obama making a long term solution more difficult. Rubio has announced he has abandoned his DREAM Act light legislation, at least until after the election, because it would be hard to argue with fellow lawmakers when they say, “Why are we going to need to do anything on this now? It has been dealt with. We can wait until after the election.”

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