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Romney Campaign Press Release - In Case You Missed It: Governor Romney On Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor"

September 06, 2007

Governor Mitt Romney

Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor"

September 6, 2007

Governor Romney On Ending "Sanctuary City" Policies:

Fox News' Bill O'Reilly: "I want to get very specific with you. We only have you for a short time and you can come back any time you want. But we've been reporting on this illegal alien criminal problem, as you know, all right? And right now, you have many cities in the United States that will not report to the federal government, homeland security, when they arrest an illegal alien for a violent crime, rape and murder. They just won't tell the feds that we have so-and-so in custody. The city of New Haven is perhaps the worst of them all. They won't even execute federal warrants, so when a judge signs a warrant for an illegal alien's arrest, criminal, whether he skipped bail, whatever, the city of New Haven says we're not going to help you out. As President, what would you do about the city of New Haven, Connecticut?"

Governor Mitt Romney: "Well, the same as I'd do with other sanctuary cities, including New York City and San Francisco and others and that is I would reduce federal funding to cities that don't enforce the federal law."

O'Reilly: "But you can't do that, only Congress can do that."

Governor Romney: "Well, if there are things I can do directly, such as sending our ICE agents in, terrific. What I did in Massachusetts is that I empowered the State Police to enforce federal immigration law."

O'Reilly: "You had a squad that did that."

Governor Romney: "We got authorization from ICE to be able to, if you will, detain people who'd come into our state illegally or come into our country illegally, and those that the State Police came across, whether at a traffic stop or at a crime, they could detain, turn over to ICE and have them deported."

O'Reilly: "As soon as you left and Deval Patrick took over, he abolished that. Why?"

Governor Romney: "It's hard to understand."

O'Reilly: "Is it just pandering for left-wing votes?"

Governor Romney: "There's probably some of that. I was at the border in San Diego and I talked to the border patrol agents and they said, look, they catch less than half that try and make it across at San Diego, where we have double fences. And they said if you want to stop illegal immigration, you've got to stop the magnets here. And those are sanctuary cities that say they're not going to enforce the law, they're zones of protections and there's employers..."

O'Reilly: "Just so I'm clear: if you're elected president, the city of New Haven, you're going to deal with them?"

Governor Romney: "Absolutely. I will deal with those cities that do not enforce the law and that do not report the infraction to the law. And, of course, that provide benefits to people..."

O'Reilly: "Of course they do!"

Governor Romney: "...that are here illegally. And by the way, it's important to point out, we value legal immigration, and I'm really concerned about legal immigrants feeling somehow this is a topic about them. I don't want them to feel uncomfortable."

To watch the video, click below:

Mitt Romney, Romney Campaign Press Release - In Case You Missed It: Governor Romney On Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor" Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/296922

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