Other Details on Mitt and Immigration

One of the critiques about Mitt regarding his stances on immigration is that he deputized his state troopers to detail illegal immigrants, but that he did so right as he was leaving office knowing that his successor would reverse that position. Marc Ambinder writes about this today.

The point isn't that Romney didn't do what he says he did -- he did indeed provide for the deputization of some state police troopers to detain undocumented workers -- the point is that there is, to every gesture a back story, and one that involves the tangle of personal, political and policy motivations.
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But I've spoken to Romney advisers and aides who served the governor during this period. Some are still with the governor's team, and others have moved on. (None is Mike Murphy, incidentally). They acknowledge that, by the middle of 2005, Romney was thinking pretty seriously about the possibility of a political life after the state house, that he was expanding his outreach to conservatives, that conservatives were listing illegal immigration as an issue of paramount concern, that Romney was encouraged by some of his advisers to summon some public intestinal fortitude on immigration, and that he was moved to take forward-leaning action toward the tail end of his term.

So basically immigration became an issue for Mitt when he was thinking about running for President. I think we all knew this. My issue here is not that he is good on immigration or bad on immigration. It is that Mitt uses the finger to the wind method to decide what he is going to address.