Romney defends immigration statements

Mitt Romney is defending himself against critics who say that comments the former Presidential candidate made in an interview with The Hill represent a flip-flop.

In an interview with The Hill published on April 1, Romney said immigration reform ought to be passed before the next election, when heated campaign rhetoric would make the issue difficult to address. He added that the GOP has “a natural affinity with Hispanic-American voters, Asian-American voters.”

Boston Globe columnist John Vennochi blasted those comments as representing a change of position for Romney, who Vennochi says “hammered – you could say demagogued – rivals like John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, and Mike Huckabee for being soft on illegal immigrants” but now seems to be “edging back to a call for immigration reform.”

Romney replied today in a letter to the Globe.

“Contrary to Joan Vennochi’s assertion in her April 9 Op-ed column “GOP cools on a hot-button issue,” my view on immigration reform is exactly as I described in my 2008 campaign,” Romney wrote.

Read the whole letter here.