So is Willard Romney the son of legal or illegal immigrants?

[IntravenousDemilo]

Romney's position on immigration is that he likes legal immigrants, but not illegal ones:

"Well, there's no question but that we do have a pretty big gap between us on the issue of illegal immigration. Mayor Giuliani supported a sanctuary city, his own in New York. I said I'd cut back funding to any city that calls itself a sanctuary city for illegal aliens. And likewise, giving a tuition break to the children of illegals that are here illegally when citizens are having to pay a higher rate, that makes no sense to me at all and that's something Mike Huckabee supported when he was governor of Arkansas...."
http://mittromney.com/News/Press-Releases/ICYMI_Hannity...

Would he make an exception for his own dad, who ran for the Republican presidential nomination against Nixon in 1968? According to ThinkProgress:

"Mitt Romney’s father George was born in Chihuahua, Mexico in 1907, the son of Gaskell Romney and Anna Amelia Pratt. Three generations of Romneys lived in Mexico because Miles Park Romney, a polygamist, moved the family there in 1884 as it became increasingly clear that the U.S. government would not tolerate polygamy in the Utah Territory. The 1882 Edmunds Act stripped polygamists of the basic rights of U.S. citizenship, denying them the right to vote, serve on juries or hold office. Not dissimilar to current immigration raids, U.S. federal agents hunted and arrested polygamists. Polygamists were forced to leave the country or risk jail.

"Miles chose to leave the country, bringing his multiple wives and children with him across the southern border. In his 1902 book The Story of the Mormons, author William Alexander Linn states that the “Secretario de Fomento of Mexico” related that “The laws of this country do not permit polygamy,” and that the contracts for the establishment of Mormon colonies in Mexico required the same. If true, Miles Romney then knowingly arrived in direct violation of Mexican immigration law.

"Utah became a state in 1896, only after laws were passed there prohibiting polygamy. While polygamy may have been illegal in both countries, the Romneys still found Mexico more to their liking. All four of George’s grandparents would live out their days in Mexico, with Anna’s mother Dorsey being the last to die — in Chihuahua in 1929.

"Gaskell and Anna (who were monogamous) were married in 1895, and according to George’s biographer Tom Mahoney, lived in Chihuahua until the height of the Mexican Revolution in 1912. Relative Junius Romney negotiated with rebel leaders to get women and children out of the colony for their safety. Anna, with Mitt’s father George in tow, fled across the U.S. border by train (with no apparent delay or search at the border). A short time later Gaskell, like many Mexican immigrants before and since, covered hundreds of miles under a hot sun, crossing by land into New Mexico."
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/12/24/romney-family-immig... /

How does Willard square his views with his family history, and do so with a straight face?

[bluerum]

1. This is fascinating. Its the repukian "I got mine, screw you" mentality.

He does not care about immigrants, legal or otherwise, as long as he gets the piles of cash promised to him by the repukes.

[IntravenousDemilo]

2. I was also wondering whether being stripped of your citizenship rights...

...is the same as being stripped of your citizenship, even if you emigrate from the US willingly.

[dbackjon]

3. Very interesting

Something to file in the memory bank for future use!

[Xipe Totec]

4. Oh, this is LO-VE-LY

It instantly reminded me of this contest I posted last year:

"Pretend, for a moment, that you are not a US Citizen"

Imagine that by some colossal cosmic mistake the stork's navigation system went haywire, and you were dumped on some God forsaken place instead of the good ol' USA. Can't say where, exactly, but wherever it is, your butt is now covered in cactus thorns.

Bad landing, what can I say.

For the sake of argument, let's say that you are bright and ambitious, but born into poverty. There's nothing wrong with you, it's just that fortune's wheel decided to run over you. You are unschooled, and unskilled, but willing to work to make something of yourself.

You hear about this place called the USA, the land of opportunity, where you could be the success you were destined to become, if only that stupid stork hadn't missed the drop zone.

Now the catch is that this place is a real stickler for law, and order, and rules, and procedures. So, you decide to play by the rules to make sure you don't get in trouble.

The very first step you have to take is to become a legal resident. Once you have that, you're pretty much set; five years later you can apply for citizenship.

The name of this game is "Make me a Citizen"






I never thought that cousin Romney would be a contestant...


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[judaspriestess]

5. give me an

H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-T-E


What does that spell?????

[Bitwit1234]

6. I also found

that George W. Romney was not born in the US but that they made special provisions to let him run for president because his parents were both US citizens. Ancestry went down just as I was starting check on George Romney and Parley Pratt, Romney's maternal couple of greats grandfather.

[IntravenousDemilo]

7. That's the thing I wasn't clear on, though.

Hadn't George Romney's proximal ancestors abandoned their US citizenship when they emigrated to Mexico of their own free will?

[CK_John]

8. Any real question about Mitt being born here, if not what why does it matter? n/t

[IntravenousDemilo]

11. It's just that you'd think the son of a possibly illegal immigrant would be more sympathetic...

...to the plight of individuals and families who are now making the same journey that his family did roughly a century ago.

[Rydz777]

9. Very interesting. I do not dismiss Mitt Romney because of his

family history which is dramatic. I dismiss him because I think he would make a lousy President, a pandering agent of the status quo.

[Bitwit1234]

10. Let me get this straight....Gaskill and Anna abandoned

their citizenship? But the report I read said that George W. Romney, Mitt's father was allowed to run for president. Even tho he was born in Mexico, it was said his parents were both US citizens. Which was it can anybody clarify, the were US citizens or they abandoned citizenship. The other report I read about George said they didn't. But the above post taken from the Salt Lake newspaper said they did. I guess it just depends on who you are...Maybe they can say Arnolds's parents at one time were US citizens so he can get to run.

And according to ancestry in 1850 Miles P Romney had two wives listed with I think it was 15 children.

[Sabien]

12. Willard "Mit" Romney

is an "anchor baby"?

hmmm.