Mitt Romney: Republicans Should ‘Swallow Hard,’ Pass ‘Permanent’ Amnesty Bill

Former Massachusetts Governor and failed presidential candidate Mitt Romney believes Republicans should “swallow hard” and pass a permanent amnesty bill in the wake of President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty that even Romney conceded would encourage more illegal immigrants to enter the country.

Romney recently told Spanish-language Univision that Obama is “giving people false hope” and “communicating to people outside this country, ‘Hey, get into the United States illegally and stay, because they’ll always let you stay.’”

Romney’s solution is for Congress to pass a “permanent clarification of our immigration laws so that people know where they stand,” because Obama’s executive amnesty is only temporary. But Romney said that he was “pretty confident that what the president’s doing will so inflame passions on the part of many in my party… that they will be far less likely to move aggressively on the type of permanent reform that’s so badly needed.” He hoped the party could work on some piecemeal solutions on immigration to get the ball rolling.

“Maybe even then, Republicans will swallow hard and say, ‘OK, even despite the fact that we now have a stick in our eye launched by the president, we’re going to go ahead and try and see if we can’t make some improvements to the immigration system,'” Romney said. “I hope we’re able to do that.”

Appearing on Fox News Sunday right before the midterms, in which Republicans were about to take back Congress largely because voters disapproved of Obama on illegal immigration, Romney said or a potential GOP-led Congress: “You’re going to see a provision first of all to secure the border, second of all, to deal with those who have come here illegally and, third, to make sure our immigration policies are open and transparent to many people who do want to come here illegally. That’s going to happen.”

“You’re going to see a bill actually reach the desk of the president, if we finally have someone besides Harry Reid sitting in the Senate,” he said then, emphasizing that, “we’re going to get it done, I think.”

Speaking to Univision, Romney did acknowledge that the “nation voted overwhelmingly against the president’s policies” but indicated that he still felt the new Congress should pass a more permanent amnesty bill.

“He may not have liked what the prior Congress did or did not do. But there is a new Congress about to be sworn in in January, and he should give that Congress the opportunity to do what they said they’ll do, which is to work together to put legislation on his desk,” Romney told Univision.