Romney immigration proposal

George writes:

Romney has released his immigration plan.

On illegal immigration, it appears Romney has embraced attrition through enforcement, even though Romney doesn’t use the word “attrition.”

On legal immigration, Romney has come out in favor of ending chain migration and basing immigration on skills, not family ties. Unfortunately, he doesn’t make clear what specific numerical level of immigration he supports.

Beyond the details of this plan, I worry that given Romney’s previous flip-flops on various issues, he may not follow through on these ideas. Romney conversion to conservatism seems too closely timed to his run for president for my tastes.

However, to my knowledge, Romney has never been infatuated with multiculturalism and diversity in the extreme way Bush, and too a lesser extent Bill Clinton, has been, Yes, Romney has mouthed support for right-liberalism and he went to the Univision debate, but I don’t get the sense that diversity is psychologically and emotionally important to him.

Since Romney doesn’t view multiculturalism as a priority, it is possible he would enforce immigration law simply because he has clearly promised to do so and can’t easily back away from his promise, and also because pushing an amnesty would risk killing progress on issues Romney does care about, such as taxes and health care.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 16, 2007 01:44 AM | Send