Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on Wednesday ridiculed rival Mitt Romney's call for self-deportation of illegal immigrants as an "Obama-level fantasy" that would be inhumane to long-established families living in America.
The former House speaker ripped that part of Romney's immigration policy during a forum Wednesday with the Spanish-language network Univision. The interviewer also asked sharp questions about Gingrich's marital history.
Gingrich laughed at the idea of self-deportation and said it wouldn't work.
During a debate earlier this week, Romney said he favors self-deportation over policies that would require the federal government to round up millions of illegal immigrants and send them back to their home countries. Advocates of Romney's approach argue that illegal immigration can be curbed by denying public benefits to them, forcing them to leave the United States on their own.
"You have to live in a world of Swiss bank accounts and Cayman Island accounts and automatically $20 million income for no work to have some fantasy this far from reality," Gingrich said, alluding to details in Romney's income tax returns made public on Tuesday. "For Romney to believe that somebody's grandmother is going to be so cut off that she is going to self-deport, I mean this is an Obama-level fantasy."
But Gingrich's campaign has spoken of the self-deportation policy he ridiculed Wednesday.
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Illegal immigration by Hispanics in this country is a complex issue with no easy black and white solutions. Because this illegal immigration has gone on so long with many illegal immigrants long time residents here in this country the issue of deportation is a thorny one. America is essentially a humane society and as such we are loath to break up families or as Newt Gingrinch implies to deport somebody's "grandmother". As I see it, self deportation of illegal immigrants is both humane and practical. When American employers stop employing illegal immigrants and when state and local governments stop giving them the benefits of American citizens many will voluntarily return to Mexico or wherever they came from.
Newt Gingrinch is a brilliant but morally flawed politician with a very large ego. As I see it, he is engaging in the same populist "class warfare" agenda as President Obama and the Democratic party in his fight to win the GOP Presidential nomination race running against Mitt Romney. "Populist" rhetoric is always divisive. Hopefully GOP voters in future primaries won't be swayed by Newt Gingrinch's oratory but see him as he really is, an egomanic that will say anything to be elected President and become the "transformational figure" he sees himself as.
Self deportation can work.
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