Romney's "Self-deportation" plan is not new. Bush tried it in 2008 and it failed miserably

[maximusveritas]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26338910/ns/us_news-security/t/feds-say-self-deportation-program-didnt-work/#.Tx5B77KHRSQ|

Federal immigration officials vowed Friday to intensify efforts to track down illegal immigrants after scrapping a trial “self-deportation” program that attracted only eight volunteers.

Mitt Romney 2012. Recycling all the failed policies from George W. Bush. Because they've gotta work this time.

[deacon]

1. I think I saw somewhere where this clown read bush's book twice.Explains a lot. n/t

[pampango]

2. TP: Romney’s Immigration Reform: Force ‘Self-Deportation’ By Making Immigrants’ Lives Miserable

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R), pressed by reporter Adam Smith to offer his plan for immigration reform at tonight’s NBC debate in Florida, said he would support “self-deportation” — a policy to make immigrants lives so miserable that they would choose to leave the country on their own:

SMITH: Governor Romney, there’s one thing I’m confused about. You say you don’t want to go and round up people and deport them, but you also say they’d have to go back to their own questions and then apply for citizenship. So if you don’t deport them, how do you send them home?

ROMNEY: Well, the answer is self-deportation, which is people decide that they can do better by going home because they can’t find work here because they don’t have legal documentation to allow them to work here. (Audience laughs) And so we’re not going to round people up. [...] Well, yes, we’d have a card that indicates who’s here legally. And if people are not able to have a card, and have that through an e-verify system to determine that they are here legally, then they’re going to find they can’t find work here. And if people don’t get work here, they’re going to self-deport to a place they can get work.

The position is not a new one for Romney — Eric Fehrnstrom, one of the campaign’s top advisers, offered the “turn the magnets off” solution in November — but it does represent a change from his 2008 policy, when he supported mass deportations.

The “self-deportation” policy is a continuation of Romney’s current radicalism on immigration. Romney has the backing of Kansas Secretary of State and anti-immigration zealot Kris Kobach (R), the author of both Arizona and Alabama’s anti-immigration laws. And Romney’s current “self-deportation” position basically boils down to the policy goal of the Alabama law: he wants to make immigrants’ lives so miserable, they choose to leave the country on their own.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/01/23/409887/romneys-immigration-reform-force-self-deportation-by-making-immigrants-lives-miserable/

Mitt probably thinks he is being more "humane" with his "make 'em miserable, ALEC-style" immigration policy since he has moved on from his 2008 "deport 'em all" policy.