Mitt Romney's spokesman attacked Newt Gingrich's progressive stance on immigration after Tuesday night's debate, repeatedly saying that Romney was against amnesty. He struggled to answer whether the candidate would deport undocumented immigrants already in the country.
Now Gingrich would like to remind Romney of his view on the topic.
"@MittRomney Here's a trip down memory lane: bitly.com/sdk8RE So what's your position on citizenship for illegals again? (I oppose it.)" he tweeted Wednesday morning.
In the 14-second clip (watch above) from a 2007 interview on "Meet the Press," Romney appears to support amnesty for undocumented immigrants. "My own view is, consistent with what you saw in the Lowell Sun, that those people who had come here illegally and are in this country, the 12 million or so that are here illegally, should be able to sign up for permanent residency or citizenship," Romney said.
That sounds a lot like the stance Gingrich took Tuesday night.
"I do not believe that the people of the United States are going to take people who have been here a quarter century, who have children and grandchildren, who are members of the community, who may have done something 25 years ago, separate them from their families, and expel them," Gingrich said.
But as Romney's camp was quick to point out, the rest of the clip would have shown a more nuanced picture. Romney's entire quote follows:
"My own view is, consistent with what you saw in the Lowell Sun, that those people who had come here illegally and are in this country, the 12 million or so that are here illegally, should be able to sign up for permanent residency or citizenship, but they should not be given a special pathway, a special guarantee that all of them get to stay here for the rest of their lives merely by virtue of having come here illegally, and that, I think, is the great flaw in the final bill that came forward from the Senate."