A major hat tip to Blue Suede Shoe for noting and thoughtfully reprinting today’s subscription-only editorial in the Wall St. Journal. As the mouthpiece of the rightmost wing of the corporatist branch of the Republican party, the WSJ editorial page has a lot to say about which potential Republican presidential candidates can raise the big bucks needed to be competitive, and which can command the allegiance of Republican elites needed to build a viable campaign.
They are unimpressed with Mr. Romney, despite his pedigree as a corporate-raidin’ free-marketeerin’ Bain guy:
Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney recently struck a deal that gives 30 state police officers the authority to enforce federal immigration laws. The Republican governor is eyeing a Presidential run and no doubt hopes that a symbolic hard line on immigration will ingratiate him with GOP primary voters.
At least we guess that’s what Mr. Romney is thinking, because he can’t possibly expect that turning 30 state troopers into quasi-immigration agents is going to be much of an illegal- alien deterrent. That certainly hasn’t been the case in a handful of other states — including Arizona, Alabama, Florida and parts of California — where it’s been tried.
Undocumented aliens who commit other crimes are already referred to the feds. But state and local authorities typically don’t make arrests on civil immigration violations and for the most part aren’t interested in being deputized to do so. Police departments from Miami to Chicago to Sacramento say that a relationship with communities based on mistrust and fear of deportation would only make their job more difficult when it comes to preventing and solving serious crimes.
Mr. Romney, whose term ends next month, is smart enough to know all this, even if political opportunism is leading him in foolish directions. The Boston Globe recently reported that the governor’s own lawn was being maintained by a company that employed illegal immigrants. Perhaps a newly empowered state trooper parked outside the governor’s front gate could prevent this unspeakable travesty from ever happening again.
Wow. When the WSJ channels Blue Mass. Group, you know the guy’s in trouble.
