Immigration

Romney does not support amnesty or a path to citizenship for illegal aliens. He wants to deport all illegal aliens back to their country of origin. He says the illegal immigrants will be given a grace period to pack their bags and leave. If they want to become legal they should go to the back of the line for the legal immigration process. "They should be given some transition period of time to allow them to settle their affairs and then return home and get in line -- at the back of the line with everybody else that wants to come here... no favoritism for permanent residency or citizenship for those that have come here illegally." Simply put, "people who come here legally get a work permit. People who do not come here legally do not get a work permit."

Romney believes illegal immigrants are coming to the United States because of the "magents" the U.S. provides, or, the incentives illegal immigrants have to come to the U.S.  "when employers are willing to hire people who are here illegally, that’s a magnet, and it draws them in. And we went in and talked about sanctuary cities, giving tuition breaks to the kids of illegal aliens, employers that, employers that knowingly hire people who are here illegally. Those things also have to be stopped."

Romney proposes to end these incentives for illegal immigrants coming over. "If I’m president, we’ll put in an E-Verify system... We have to crackdown on employers that hire people that are here illegally... We are going to have an identification card for people who come here legally.... The employer must then check the card with E-Verify or a similar system." In addition, we have to turn "off the magnets of amnesty, in-state tuition for illegal aliens, employers that knowingly hire people that have come here illegally... we have to finally have immigration laws that protect our border, secure the border, turn off the magnets, and make sure we have people come to this country legally to build our economy." 

Romney is against the DREAM Act, and says it is a "handout."12 "I'd staple a green card to the diploma of anybody who's got a degree of math, science, a Masters degree, Ph.D."

In 2005, he said the McCain-Kennedy bill, which would support a path to citizenship, was “reasonable,” but later said it was “offensive” and he does not support any form of amnesty.3 Romney has not stated his position on birthright citizenship,4 but has said he wants to end "chain migration."5