Romney Boasts of Using State Troopers to Enforce Immigration Law – But it Never Happened.
But the amnesty issue wasn’t the only immigration issue on which Romney was inconsistent. His campaign literature deceptively boasts about how he was able to deputize his state troopers as federal immigration agents, enabling them to deport illegal aliens:
Romney signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the federal government allowing Massachusetts State Troopers to investigate immigration status and enforce federal immigration laws. The agreement included authority to arrest illegal aliens encountered during the normal course of their duties. (16)
Romney appeared on Fox News to beat his chest on this issue:
I even deputized the state Police to enforce our federal immigration laws. (17)
The Romney campaign even produced a campaign commercial called “Cops on the Case,” in which Romney authoritatively states:
As Governor, I authorized the state police to enforce immigration laws. (18)
But this policy was never implemented. Even though Romney had the authority to sign such an order with The U.S. Immigration and Custom agency four years earlier upon first becoming Governor, he waited to sign this agreement 18 days before the end of his term. Since the officers must go through a five week course before they can enforce immigration law, this policy was never acted upon. State police were never deputized nor did they ever engage in detaining illegal aliens. The agreement was quickly overturned by Romney’s successor a few weeks later. (19)
It is difficult to not conclude that Romney signed this agreement simply at the request of his political handlers so that he could claim in campaign speeches that he was the conservative in the race on immigration issues. But it was all phony. As www.factcheck.org commented on the ad:
He [Romney] doesn’t mention that his order never took effect. It came in the closing days of his administration and was rescinded by his successor….We find Romney misleading on both counts. (20)
This is a typical Romney ploy: his campaign literature trumpets some alleged achievement but further research reveals the event didn’t happen at all or certainly not the way it was portrayed.
Romney Continued to Give State Aide to “Sanctuary” Cities
Sanctuary Cities are cities that defy federal law by allowing themselves to become “sanctuaries” for illegal aliens and thus often becoming magnets. This is another immigration issue on which Romney talks tough but the reality is the opposite. His campaign literature certainly sounded tough:
Cut back federal funding to cities that are “sanctuaries” for illegal immigrants and refuse to comply with federal law or aid federal law enforcement. (21)
And Romney himself said this on Fox News:
And I think we ought to cut off some funding, federal funding, to cities that call themselves sanctuary cities, that welcomes people into their cities who are illegal and who provide benefits to individuals….but we don’t want sanctuary cities, calling on people to come to this country illegally. (22)
Indeed, the Romney campaign produced television ads in which he says he will “cut funding for sanctuary cities.” But what did he really do with sanctuary cities in Massachusetts while governor? Indeed, FactCheck.org discovered that Romney also misled people on this issue:
Romney might well get tough on sanctuary cities in the future, but he didn’t when he was governor. During his tenure, at least four Massachusetts cities enacted or renewed legislation declaring themselves sanctuary for illegal immigrants…..we asked Romney’s campaign if he had acted against these cities, but they didn’t provide us with any examples. As far as we were able to determine in our own research, Romney made no attempts to penalize, censure, or cut funding to them. (23)
Moreover, Romney continued to pour local aid to the main cities that were providing sanctuary to illegal aliens — Cambridge, Orleans and Somerville. In Romney’s 2006 budget – just a year before he called for the federal government to cut off aid to sanctuary cities – Romney poured over $88,000,000 in state aid to these three cities. While the funds probably would have been restored by the Democrat-dominated state legislature, it is the Governor’s job to propose the state budget. However, Romney made no effort whatsoever to propose any reductions in state aid to these three cities. To view the spread sheet cataloging all state aid to local cities, go to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts website at: http://www.mass.gov/Ador/docs/dls/mdmstuf/StateAid/Cs2006.xls