Talk is tough, but illegal immigrants aren't going anywhere

You have to imagine that the unflappable Mitt Romney actually broke out into a sweat when the Boston Globe asked him why illegal immigrants were still working at his Belmont estate a year after the newspaper reported they were there in the first place.

"Mr. Tough on Immigrants" declined all comment, of course, until he had time to prepare his story.

And then he had a bunch of good excuses: His landscaper (a fellow Mormon, interestingly enough) had guaranteed him that he'd make sure no more illegal immigrants were mowing the governor's sprawling lawns or gathering up his autumn leaves.

"I gave the company a second chance," said Mr. Romney's statement, when he finally issued it.

Of course, one of the illegal immigrants, in Spanish, told the Globe a very different story.

He said that when he told the landscaper he didn't have legal papers, the landscaper told him to "go get something." He promptly purchased a phony green card for $80.

A year later, the illegal immigrants are still working for Mitt even as he rails about demanding their Social Security numbers at routine traffic stops.

That, in a nutshell, is the story of illegal immigration in America in 2007.

Politicians, eager to pander to an uninformed anti-immigrant fervor, rant and rave about how they're going to crack down on those pesky Latinos coming across that Rio Grande.

"We'll build a border fence, demand Social Security numbers at traffic stops and cut off school and health-care benefits!" they rail.

Mitt even went so far as to try to position himself as superior to his Republican opponents, castigating Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee for being soft on immigration. Good grief, Rudy was even running a "sanctuary city" down there in New York City, Mitt intoned at last week's debate.

Ali Noorani, the head of Massachusetts' largest pro-immigrant group, has watched the evolution of Mitt Romney in wonder.

He puzzled Wednesday over how the governor's rhetoric could have moved, over the years, from supporting "a pathway to citizenship" to fear-mongering just short of "let's round them all up."

That's easy. Mr. Romney is ambitious.

So it's kind of pleasant to see him hoisted on his own debate one-liners.

"Romney's own family is faced with the truth that most people in Massachusetts and the rest of the country already know: America runs on immigrants," said Mr. Noorani, tweaking the governor more than a little.

Mr. Romney's personal immigrant problems notwithstanding, the disconnect between what politicians say versus what they do isn't likely to decrease as the 2008 presidential campaign heats up. We've yet to hear about any hidden immigrant problems for folks like Fred Thompson or Barack Obama. But we will.

Doug Roscoe, a UMass Dartmouth political scientist, says that without a doubt, the 2008 presidential election has brought to an end any chance that America's immigration policies will be addressed during the next year.

An element of the Republican Party base feels strongly about the huge number of new immigrants in America. And even conservative swing voters are likely to feel stronger about removing the illegal immigrants than liberals feel about continuing tolerant policies, he explains.

"It's an issue that resonates with voters who feel the traditional culture in the United States is threatened," he said.

Politicians pandering to uninformed voters is nothing new, and Mitt Romney isn't the only politician pandering.

Witness how quickly New York Gov. Elliot Spitzer dropped his plan to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants (a proposal that would simply allow law enforcement to better monitor the immigrants) in the wake of the growing anti-immigrant furor. And Hillary Clinton's double talk on the immigration issue marked the beginning of her recent slide in the public opinion polls.

The Democrats know every bit as well as the Republicans that immigrant-bashing has become the latest wedge issue in American politics — the gay marriage issue of the current election cycle.

So the posturing and the preening on immigration will continue.

But both the immigrants and the American public deserve better. They deserve an adult discussion of how to address immigration matters, and why landscapers like the ones mowing Mitt Romney's lawn aren't going anywhere.

Jack Spillane's column runs on Mondays and Thursdays. Contact Jack at jspillane@s-t.com