Romney wavers on deportation

By James Politi in Washington

Mitt Romney avoided taking a firm position on President Barack Obama’s order to halt the deportation of children of illegal immigrants, highlighting his campaign’s dilemma in trying to widen its appeal among Hispanic voters, while not alienating the Republican party’s conservative base, which backs harsh immigration laws.

In an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Mr Romney attacked Mr Obama for “doing nothing on immigration” since taking office and then resorting to a politically-motivated stop-gap measure rather than pursuing a permanent fix.

But Mr Romney declined to say whether he would seek to overturn the new measure announced by the White House on Friday allowing children of illegal immigrants to remain in the country and work legally on a temporary basis.

Mr Obama’s move reflected an attempt by the White House to reinforce its advantage with Hispanics, a burgeoning and potentially pivotal voting bloc in the November presidential election. By putting Mr Romney on the defensive on the issue, Mr Obama and his re-election team are trying to regain momentum in the campaign after a rough few weeks during which Mr Romney has gained traction in many polls, capitalising mainly on the fresh slowdown in the US economic recovery.

Mr Obama is ahead by just 0.7 percentage points over Mr Romney, a statistical tie, in the latest poll average by Realclearpolitics.com.

Mr Romney was among the toughest Republican primary candidates on immigration ? opposing the Dream Act, which offered a path to citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants, and endorsing the concept of “self-deportation”, in which illegal immigrants would voluntarily leave the US because the law made conditions so difficult for them.

But Mr Romney has been under pressure to reverse course, since Hispanic voters will play a big role in a number of swing states including Nevada, Colorado and Florida. While some conservative Republicans fiercely attacked Mr Obama’s order for circumventing the Congress and selectively applying the law, Mr Romney refrained from challenging the president’s authority to make that move, irking some within his party.

“[Mr Romney]’s trying to walk a line as not to sound like he’s hostile to Latinos,” said Rick Santorum, who challenged Mr Romney for the Republican nomination, said on CNN. Mr Santorum had attacked Mr Obama for “blatantly ignoring the constitution” in the wake of Friday’s deportation reprieve order.

The Obama campaign said in a statement after the CBS interview that Mr Romney could not have it both ways. “In addition to showing a complete lack of political courage and leadership, his comments are a reminder that during the primaries he also showed significant weakness by playing to the fringe right-wing of the Republican party to get their votes.”

A Supreme Court decision on the constitutionality of a new immigration law in Arizona, one of the toughest and most contentious in the country, is expected shortly.

Both Mr Romney and Mr Obama are expected to address a conference of Hispanic lawmakers and officials this week in Orlando, Florida, which promises to keep the debate over immigration policy at the heart of the presidential race. In his CBS interview, Mr Romney also spoke of the eurozone crisis, saying the best policy for the US was to strengthen its own economy rather than intervene with its own financial support. “We’re not going to send cheques to Europe,” Mr Romney said. “We’re not going to bail out the European banks.”

Mr Romney also warned the Federal Reserve against further easing of monetary policy at its meeting this week, saying the “QE2” round of asset purchases failed to produce its “desired effect”.