Romney’s Early Positions on Immigration

Texas Governor Rick Perry and Mitt Romney are the leading candidates to become the Republican nominee for the upcoming Presidential Election.  The issue of immigration reform will be an important one in the months leading up to the Presidential Election.  Mr. Romney has taken some early positions on Immigration and I examine them here. 

   H-1B Visas:

Romney’s plan, unveiled this week, includes a proposal “to raise the ceiling” on visas for holders of advanced degrees in math, science “who have job offers in those fields from U.S. companies.” “These workers would not displace unemployed Americans. Rather, they would fill high-skill job openings for which there is currently an acute shortage of labor,” wrote Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, in his plan. Romney’s proposal doesn’t stipulate that advanced degree holders be graduates from U.S. universities. Romney’s plan also calls for “stapling” green cards to the diplomas of technical degree graduates of U.S. universities, a plan that has been proposed by lawmakers on both sides in Congress without success.   “Even in this tough unemployment climate, as of this past spring nearly 1.25 million high-skill jobs remained unfilled,” said Romney, in the economic plan released Tuesday

See:  LINK

Critics point out the following:  Ron Hira, a public policy professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, characterized as “dubious” Romney’s claim that there is 1.25 million unfilled high-skilled positions.  John Miano, the founder of the Programmers Guild, stated, “The American people expect that a president will look at all the facts and make the best decision on those facts…”. Romney’s statements “show that he is a pure politician who discards facts in favor of talking points fed to him by lobbyists who can buy access to him.”  

DREAM ACT 

Last week, Mitt Romney told a conference of Republican Hispanics in Tampa that he didn’t support the Dream Act when he was governor of Massachusetts and wouldn’t support it if elected president.

“We must stop providing the incentives that promote illegal immigration,” Romney said. “As governor, I vetoed legislation that would have provided in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrants and I strengthened the authority our state troopers had to enforce existing immigration laws.”

SEE FULL LINK

Romney has also stated that before the country can take on comprehensive immigration reform, it must first secure the 2,000-mile southwestern border.  That is clearly not a hopeful sign for proponents of immigration reform.  Securing the border should not be a pre-condition to immigration reform.  We should also say borders, not border.  We, of course, also share a long border with Canada.  We cannot wall ourselves off from other countries.  We can, however, make meaningful and humane changes to the immigration system.