Bob Schwartz on Mitt Romney's attack on Newt's Immigration Plan

I am glad to see Bob Schwartz take on Mitt Romney over Romney's attack on Newt Gringrich's plan for immigration reform. I agree with Bob.


Newt has offered a humane proposal, not for amnesty, not for citizenship, but for a plan that would legalize the status of long-term illegal immigrants with roots in the community. It is hard for me to imagine very many people would find much to criticize with Newt's proposal. If someone entered the country illegally twenty-five years ago, but has since worked, paid taxes, their children have been raised in this country and some of their children were born in this country and are citizens, and they have not otherwise committed any crimes, it would be immoral to break up that family and deport them. 

To round up 12 million people and deport them all is simply not going to happen. The logistics of deporting 12 million people is daunting. They would have to be imprisoned in detention camps awaiting deportation. The cost of detaining 12 million would be prohibitive. To the world, removal of 12 million people would be considered ethnic cleansing. We need a program to determine who stays and who goes and those that stay need to be registered. The alternative to a plan for massive detention and deportation is a plan for processing and registering of those who are here and selective deportation. We need to know who is here. The status quo is not a plan.  I hope most Republican primary voters are decent people and Romney does not benefit by pandering to the worst in people.


Bob Schwartz is a former candidate for the Republican nomination in the Fifth Congressional District and her served on the Executive Committee of the Davidson County Republican Party. His article appeared in today's Tennessean. (link)

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