Gingrich on Immigration: More Moderate and Consistent Than Romney

Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney.Mark Bialek/Zuma

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The two GOP frontrunners are again clashing over immigration, with Newt Gingrich playing the role of immigration moderate to Mitt Romney’s border hawk. The only problem is neither label fits either candidate comfortably. 

This morning, Bloomberg revisited Romney’s past support for Bush’s 2006 immigration reform plan. As I wrote in September, Romney tried to have it both ways on the issue in 2008, after the once-moderate Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) became his main rival for the Republican presidential nomination. More awkward? Moderate-sounding Gingrich opposed the Bush immigration reform proposal at the time, and in the most inflammatory and inaccurate terms possible, saying that the McCain-Kennedy bill would grant “potential terrorists and gang members” legal status. Gingrich also authored a white paper titled “Fool Me Once,” which argued that the anti-illegal immigration enforcement promises made by Bush-era reform supporters would prove to be as empty as those made by supporters of the 1986 amnesty bill signed by President Ronald Reagan. Bush’s immigration reform proposal was famously tanked by revolt from within his own base

Gingrich did outline a proposal for comprehensive immigration reform for National Review in 2006. It looks a lot like what he’s proposing now. Gingrich wanted an English-language requirement, “citizen juries” to decide whether or not to deport unauthorized immigrants, a guest worker program, and privatized employment verification procedures. It’s not the deportation-only policy preferred by the Republican base, but it also raises the question of whether Gingrich opposed Bush-era immigration reform (which would have accomplished many of the same goals through alternate, less-Gingrichy means) because it was too moderate, or because, like Romney later on, he put his finger in the wind and figured out which way it was blowing. From the perspective of anti-immigrant conservatives, of course, there’s no real difference between Gingrich and Bush.

Republican voters can find plenty of evidence for the argument that both Romney and Gingrich are “squishes” when it comes to illegal immigration. When it comes to consistency, however, Gingrich can make a credible case that he’s not the flip-flopper Romney is. Whether his preferred immigration policies are any more workable than mass deportation is a different question.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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