Mitt Romney
Candidate for President (Republican)
Residence: Belmont, MA; Wolfeboro, NH; La Jolla, San Diego, CA
Marital Status: Married (Ann)
Prev. Occupation: Businessman
Prev. Political Exp.: Massachusetts Governor, 2003-07
Education: BA Brigham Young , 1971; MBA and JD Harvard University, 1975
Birthdate: 03/12/1947
Birthplace: Detroit, MI
Religion: Mormon
Office:
585 Commercial Street
Boston, MA 02109
Website: http://www.mittromney.com/
Email Mitt Romney: http://capwiz.com/paaia/mailapp/?candidid=194749
Civil Liberties
Romney believes that the best offense is a good defense. He supports civil liberties but believes that being safe and alive is the most important liberty the United States government can provide to its citizens. Romney feels that the number one job of the Government is to keep its citizens safe, and as President he will do what it takes to secure Americans' safety and freedom.
Romney is a supporter of the Patriot Act as well as other expanded powers given to the government for the purpose of homeland security. He has called the Patriot Act a “useful tool to gather information” to help counter terrorist threats to the United States.
Romney believes that those who seek to attack the United States must be treated differently than ordinary criminals. He has said that “...we’ll use the constitution and criminal law for those people who commit crimes but those who commit war and attack the United States and pursue treason of various kinds we will use instead a very different form of law which is the law afforded to those who are fighting America.” In a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in February 2010, Romney said: “Conservatives believe in providing constitutional rights to our citizens…A conversation with a would-be suicide bomber will not begin with the words: ‘You have a right to remain silent’.”
Romney has also stated that he supports enhanced interrogation techniques under certain circumstances but is opposed to torture. During a 2007 question and answer session in Denison, Iowa, he said: “I support tough interrogation techniques, enhanced interrogation techniques, in circumstances where there is a ticking time bomb, a ticking bomb. I do not support torture, but I do support enhanced interrogation techniques to learn from terrorists what we need to learn to keep the bombs from going off..."
Romney has voiced approval of wiretapping some mosques in order to help protect the United States from attacks by Islamic extremists, although he has stated that he would not do so without the approval of a judge. In a Republican debate in 2007, Romney stated that the focus of the government must be on “preventing an attack...And if it means we have to go into a mosque to wiretap or a church, then that’s exactly where we’re going to go because we’re going to do whatever it takes to protect the American people. And I hear from time to time people say, hey, wait a second, we have civil liberties we have to worry about. But don’t forget the most important civil liberty I expect from my government is my right to be kept alive, and that’s what we’re going to have to do.”
Romney supports military tribunals and the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo. In 2007, he said: “Some people say we should close Guantanamo. I think we should double Guantanamo.” Romney opposes extending the right of habeas corpus to detainees held at Guantanamo; he has said that “I want them at Guantanamo where they don’t get access to the lawyers they get when they’re on our soil. I don’t want them in our prisons. I want them there.” Romney has also said, however, that if “enemy combatants” are U.S. citizens they are entitled to some degree of “habeas corpus relief.”
In 2012, Romney said that had he been president, he would have signed the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act. The act authorized the president to arrest, and indefinitely detain, U.S. citizens suspected of having connections to al-Qaeda.
Regarding his views on religious freedom, Romney recognizes that people of all faiths are welcome in the United States and has affirmed the constitutional principle that elected officials should not be chosen based on their religious beliefs. In a debate between the Republican candidates in June 2011, he stated that “Our nation was founded on a principle of religious tolerance. That's in fact why some of the early patriots came to this country and we treat people with respect regardless of their religious persuasion.” While a proponent of separation of church and state, Romney believes that while the founders proscribed the establishment of a state religion, they did not countenance the elimination of religion from the public square. “I will take care to separate the affairs of government from any religion, but I will not separate us from the God who gave us liberty,” explained Romney in a 2007 speech on faith. “Perhaps the most important question to ask a person of faith who seeks a political office, is this: does he share these American values: the equality of human kind, the obligation to serve one another, and a steadfast commitment to liberty?”
Romney has stated that the “secular agenda” of people around Obama harms religion, and has said that the Obama administration’s healthcare plan impinges on religious freedom. In 2010, Romney opposed the construction of Park 51, a Muslim community center in near the site of the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center in Manhattan, on the grounds that “extremists [could] use the mosque for global recruiting and propaganda.”
The Political Guide: Mitt Romney on the Issues
2012 Republican Candidates
Mitt Romney on the Issues
Mitt Romney’s Campaign Website
Romney admits he would have signed the National Defense Authorization Act if he were president, January 16, 2012
Mitt Romney, other GOP candidates debate religion, Worldwide Religious News, June 14, 2011
Transcript: Mitt Romney’s Faith Speech , NPA, December 6, 2007
Romney, Obama leap into fray on faith, religious liberty, Times Free Press, February 23, 2012
Mitt Romney Candidate Report on Civil Liberties, ACLU Liberty Watch
Immigration
Romney has stated: “I want to see more immigration in our country, but more legal immigration and less illegal immigration.” He believes that America’s immigration system, as it currently exists, is “broken." As Romney sees it, the major problem is that too many unskilled workers are being permitted to enter the United States illegally, while too few skilled workers are unable to immigrate legally. To change this situation, Romney’s plan would raise visa caps for highly skilled workers and give permanent residency to eligible graduates with advanced degrees in engineering, science, and mathematics.
In order to combat illegal immigration, Romney promises to secure the southern U.S. border by building a “high-tech” fence and provide adequate border patrol by “investing in adequate manpower and resources.” To further discourage illegal unskilled workers from entering the country, Romney would establish a tamper-free employment verification system that resembles E-Verify, an Internet-based identification system operated by the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration. This would enable employers to only hire people who are in the U.S. legally and, in Romney’s words, would “turn off the jobs magnet that attracts so many unskilled workers to cross the border or overstay their visas.”
Romney is opposed to amnesty for illegal aliens. He believes that amnesty encourages illegal immigration. At the same time, however, he has stated: “I don’t believe in rounding up 11 million people and forcing them at gunpoint from our country.” Romney has said that he supports a “self-deportation policy." To Romney, self-deportation is when “people decide 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." Romney said that after a transition period, illegal immigrants who had no cards would not be able to find work and would “self-deport.” Romney has said he would like to see illegal immigrants apply for citizenship, register with the government, and pay taxes, but that those who do so should not be given special treatment or priority over immigrants who have legally applied for citizenship.
Romney has declared that he opposes the "DREAM" Act, which would make unlawful aliens eligible for higher education benefits. The act authorizes the cancellation of removal for aliens who entered the country before they turned 16 and are of good character, not eligible for deportation, and have been admitted to institutions of higher education. In December 2011, he vowed to veto the act if he became president. He also said, however, that he would support giving children of illegal immigrants some type of residency in exchange for military service.
As governor of Massachusetts, Romney vetoed a 2004 bill that would have allowed illegal immigrants to obtain in-state tuition rates at colleges if they graduated from a Massachusetts high school after at least three years attendance and signed an affidavit stating that they intend to seek American citizenship. Romney argued that the bill would cost the state of Massachusetts $15 million and that Massachusetts would be rewarding illegal immigration if the bill was passed. Romney also opposed driver licenses for illegal immigrants during his governorship.
Romney is in favor of allowing state and local law enforcement agencies to enforce immigration laws. In December 2006, as governor, he signed an executive order that would have permitted Massachusetts state police troopers to arrest people suspected of being illegal immigrants during the course of their duties, and to seek their deportation as part of an agreement with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. The order was never implemented because governor-elect Deval Patrick revoked it when he was sworn in, one month after it was signed by Romney. In a debate in February 2012, Romney made remarks which were widely interpreted as praising Arizona’s Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act (SB1070) as “a model” for the country, although Romney campaign members and others subsequently argued Romney was actually referring to E-Verify, which is mandated in Arizona. SB1070 makes it a state misdemeanor crime for an alien to be in Arizona without the federally required documents, requires that when there is reasonable suspicion that someone is an illegal immigrant, state law enforcement attempt to determine a person’s immigration status during a “lawful stop, detention or arrest” or during a “lawful contact” not specific to any activity. The Obama administration fought the enforcement of SB1070 in court on the grounds that the law “is preempted by federal law and therefore violates the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitutionis fighting SB1070 in court. Romney denounced Obama’s suit against SB1070. In June 2012, the Supreme Court struck down the provisions of SB 1070, which made it a state crime for immigrants to not carry papers, forbade illegals from working in Arizona, and allowed for warrantless arrests in specified situations. At the same time, the court upheld the section which required a law officer to ascertain the immigration status of someone on suspicions of being in the country illegally.
Immigration and 2012: How Romney and Obama Differ, April 24, 2012
The Political Guide: Mitt Romney on the Issues
Mitt Romney’s Campaign Website
Mitt Romney on the Issues Romney’s Plan for ‘Self-Deportation’ Has Conservative Support, New York Times, January 24, 2012
Mitt Romney says he would veto DREAM Act, LA Times, January 1, 2012
Mitt Romney Immigration Stance, Committed to Romney, November 19, 2011
Mitt Romney was Ahead of Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer with “Papers Please” Legislation, Winning Progressive, June 19, 2012
Legal Information Institute Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act (SB1070)
Mitt Romney campaign: 'You see a model here in Arizona' didn't mean what you thought it meant, Daily Kos, April 19, 2012
Iran
Romney has stated that preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons is his “No.1” foreign policy priority. In an article published in the Washington Post on March 5, 2012, he described a nuclear Iran as something the United States “cannot afford.” Romney believes that a nuclear Iran would constitute a threat to Israel, and eventually to Europe and the United States as well.
Romney is in favor of peaceful means to bring Iranian nuclear ambitions to an end, but has said he is willing to use military force if necessary. He has called for a new round of sanctions specifically targeting “the financial resources of the Iranian regime and its Revolutionary Guard corps, focusing on restrictions on the Central Bank of Iran, as well as other financial institutions..." Romney favors placing sanctions on all the business activities of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including “...much of Iran’s petroleum industry.” In order to reduce the flow of petroleum commerce to Iran, he supports sanctions on firms that transport petroleum products to and from the country.
Romney is also in favor of tightening existing sanctions by denying Iran access to the international banking system. He favors discouraging Iran from purchasing foreign currency and from obtaining credit. He has also called for strategic divestment of firms that do business in Iran and support the Iranian government. In enforcing and expanding sanctions against Iran, Romney favors acting together with other nations if possible (ideally through the United Nations Security Council) but “alone if we must.” In February 2012, Romney criticized Obama for not seeking a guarantee from Russia to refrain from vetoing sanctions against Iran when the U.S. removed missile defense sites from Eastern Europe.
Romney has said that if military action proves necessary to persuade the Iranian government to abandon its nuclear program, he will not use ground forces for an attack on Iran. Instead, he will use “blockade, bombardment and surgical military strikes." Romney has also promised to pursue a military policy modeled on former President Reagan’s “peace thru strength" in order to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The plan includes “restoring the regular presence" of aircraft carrier groups in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf region simultaneously, while increasing military aid to Israel and “improved coordination” with American allies in the region. As part of a policy similar to Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), Romney would move to create ballistic missile defense systems which would prevent Iranian and North Korean missiles from threatening the U.S. and its allies.
Romney has vowed to speak in favor of democracy in Iran and to support Iranian dissidents who are, in his words, “fighting for their freedom.” He has criticized Obama for not having supported the Green Movement during the 2009 election protests in Iran, saying: “As protesters demonstrating against a stolen election were shot down in the streets, President Obama stated he did not want to ‘meddle’ in Iranian affairs, fearing that his unconditional outreach to the Iranian regime would be endangered if he did so. This was a disgraceful abdication of American moral authority.” Romney has stated that Obama should have spoken out “...when dissidents took to the streets and say America is with you and work on a covert basis to encourage the dissidents."
Romney has pledged not to “stand silent” while the Iranian government “ruthlessly terrorizes its own people,” and says he will work to disseminate information to the Iranian people about the “repressive activities” of their government. He also promises to work for Iran’s increased diplomatic isolation. Romney has stated that because of his calls for Israel to be “wiped off the map,” Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should be indicted for incitement to genocide under Article III of the United Nations’ “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.”
How I would check Iran’s nuclear ambition, Washington Post, March 5, 2012
Romney on a Nuclear Iran, and Love, New York Times, February 29, 2012
The Political Guide: Mitt Romney on the Issues
Mitt Romney on the Issues
Mitt Romney’s Campaign Website
Click here for Romney’s position statements on other issues.
Not so Different: 10 Ways the Economy Would Change Under Romney, U.S. News & World Report