Romney flexes his immigration muscle with Glenn Beck
(CNN) — Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said this week that if elected president he would punish states that provide illegal immigrants with tuition breaks or those that issue them driver’s licenses.
As president, Romney told Headline News talk show host Glenn Beck, he would reduce federal highway funds to any state that issued driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.
The former Massachusetts governor got in a dig at GOP rival former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee while explaining his view on tuition breaks for undocumented workers.
If you have a state like Mike Huckabee’s state in Arkansas that fights to give people a tuition break if they’re an illegal in their state, you say, ‘no, you’re not going to do that,’ Romney explained. If you do that, we’re going to cut back on higher education funding.
Huckabee has disputed similar claims. In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer earlier this month, Huckabee said, You don’t punish a child for the crime of a parent. Huckabee added that the Arkansas tuition program also required illegal immigrants to apply for citizenship.
In a similar vein, Romney repeated his attacks on former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, calling New York City a sanctuary city, and promising as president, he would reduce federal funding to such cities. Watch Headline News’ Glenn Beck interview Mitt Romney.
During the interview, the White House hopeful defended the health care plan he implemented as governor of Massachusetts as anything but the road to socialism.
Romney also promised that as president he would push to have the United States entirely independent of foreign oil within 20 years. That plan includes building more nuclear power plants and using more liquefied coal with sequestered carbon dioxide.
Once we let the world know we’re committed, the worldwide markets are going to change because America is going to be on a pathway to getting itself off of foreign oil, said Romney, a Harvard MBA who was a successful businessman before entering politics
On the economic front, Romney told Beck he would make President Bush’s tax cuts permanent, institute a tax-free savings plan for middle-income Americans, and get rid of the estate tax. Asked about the subprime mortgage mess, Romney explained that the credit crisis is something which could spread throughout our economy, adding, I hope it does not.
Beck declared Romney’s Mormon faith off-limits, starting the interview: I’ve decided that as soon as the rest of the media asks Sen[s.] [Orrin] Hatch [R-Utah] and Harry Reid [D-Nevada] when they’re going to give a speech on Mormonism and how it affects their job, I’ll ask you that question. In the meantime, why don’t we talk actual issues.
Beck, himself Mormon, joined the church and embarked on a career in talk radio following a bout with alcoholism and drug addiction, according to his online bio.
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Fran says:
November 19th, 2007 at 4:16 am
Regarding Romney’s proposal to reduce federal highway funds for states that issue drivers’ licenses or tuition aid to illegal aliens: How would reduction of federal highway funds impact the safety of our highway system? This just doesn’t make sense and I don’t think it’s such a good idea. Highway travel is a dangerous endeavor these days - we don’t need this kind of “help” - it would put highways in disrepair and further impact the safety of travelers.
Mr. Romney needs to think about just who this will impact. The average citizen. Not good.
Bob Ramos says:
November 19th, 2007 at 5:22 am
Romney may win the GOP nomination but he has now lost the general election. There are over 89 million Hispanics in the USA of which perhaps 70 million of us are citizens. Because of the illegal immigration issue and Iraq, most of us are registered voters.
We are very very sensitive about the immigration issue and feel that the GOP, particularly
Tancredo and now Romeny are now branded anti-Hispanic. With this Glen Beck interview, our vote is now automatically for the Democrat nominee regardless who he/she might be - even Kucinich.
As a group, we feel that the problem is very real and needs to be cured with a fair,
realistic and comprehensive overhaul to include giving ICE sufficient resources to
do its job including the backroom mess it has in the huge backlog of applications.
To any that say that I or my kind should move back to Mexico - I am a service disabled Vet, one brother died in a vet hospital, another is disabled from Korea and my two sons are navy vets.
John Fetters says:
November 19th, 2007 at 10:55 am
How about we stop catering to those who came here illegally and start sending them back home I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT THOSE WHO CAME HERE LEGALY only the one’s who are breaking the law. How is it that anyone who wants to stop illegal immigration is branded anti Hispanic? Why don’t the people of Mexico march in the streets of Mexico City and demand Mexico do something about the poverty and corrupt government? How is it the responsibility of the American people to fix Mexico?
Every time I hear they do the jobs Americans won’t do it makes me sick because it a big lie.
When I was in high school in the mid 70’s my school system built skill centers for students to be trained as carpenters electricians ect and most jobs started around $15.00 an hr now thanks to illegal immigration those same jobs pay $8.00 to $12.00 and hr So as you can see the wages have been going down not up That is not good for America. or the American people. So stop your whining and and start demanding Mexico do what it should be doing to help fix this problem and stop blaming everyone else I agree all Federal fund’s should be cut off to any state that supports or helps illegal immigration. Lets take care of America first