Was Mitt Romney Honest About His Immigration Record?

Last night at the CNN-Tea Party debate Mitt Romney said this about his immigration record:

“In Massachusetts, they enforce illegal immigration and if they are in MA illegally, they get them out.”

Really Mitt?
Here’s the video:

Here is what On the Issues website has to say about Mitt’s immigration record:

FactCheck: MA state cops never enforced immigration laws
Romney claims in his TV ad that he put state troopers on the trail of illegals in his state. But he didn’t do so until he had less than a month left in his term. He was already considering running for president, and the new governor-elect was expected to rescind the arrangement.

Romney began talking about giving troopers the power to make arrests on immigration charges earlier in 2006, but he didn’t sign an agreement with the federal government–a necessary condition for that authority to be granted– until Dec. 13, 2006. Romney was scheduled to leave office Jan. 4, 2007. Democrat Deval Patrick, who had won the race to succeed Romney, had already said the program was a “bad idea” because troopers were busy enough as it was.

Sure enough, Patrick rescinded the agreement within his first week in office so troopers could “focus on enforcing MA laws.” The policy never had a chance to take effect, because those troopers chosen to carry it out hadn’t yet begun a required 6-week training course
Source: FactCheck.org: AdWatch of 2007 campaign ad, “Immigration” Nov 9, 2007

FactCheck: Took no action against 4 Mass. sanctuary cities
Romney promises in his TV ad, “As President, I’ll oppose amnesty, cut funding for sanctuary cities and secure our borders.” Romney might well get tough on sanctuary cities in the future, but he didn’t when he was governor.

During his tenure, at least f Orleans didn’t officially deem themselves “sanctuaries,” but Somerville affirmed its “long-standing policies in support of all immigrants,” while Orleans forbade city officials from turning in illegal immigrants without probable cause.

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.
Source: FactCheck.org: AdWatch of 2007 campaign ad, “Immigration” Nov 9, 2007

Obviously, Governor Romney was stretching the truth a bit at last night’s debate.
Hat Tip Maria

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