The Supreme Court’s ruling today on Arizona’s controversial immigration law is the latest issue on which Mitt Romney is refusing to take a stance.
The court struck down several provisions of the law, but allowed — for now — the most notorious, which requires police to ask people for proof of citizenship if they have reason to believe they might be here illegally. In response, Romney, who has expressed his support for the law, released a non-committal statement that stuck to criticizing the federal government.
On Hardball Monday, New York magazine’s John Heilemann called out the GOP nominee. Romney “did not get on camera today, he took no questions today,” Heilemann told Chris Matthews. “His spokespeople refused to answer the question of what he thought about the ruling. That tells you about where the political vulnerability is seen by the Republican nominee. He thinks that this issue is an issue that’s radioactive for him. Any time he’s talking about immigration it’s bad for him.”
Heilemann added that Romney desperately needs to improve his image with Latino voters.
“One of the most serious political imperatives Mitt Romney has is to try to fix his problem with the Hispanic community,” he said. “What he has done is, if anything, dug himself in deeper rather than try to fix his problem. And I think nothing that happened today helped him with the Hispanic community … and the way he’s handled it, as I said, has made his problem worse not better.” Romney also has refused to say whether he’d repeal President Obama’s order announcing an end to deportations of most young illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. age 16 or younger. And beyond immigration, he’s stayed mum on whether he’d sign a law that repealed the 2009 law guaranteeing equal pay for women.
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