Gingrich's Past Support Of Amnesty Called Into Question

Republican candidates at last night’s presidential debate tried casting current GOP frontrunner Newt Gingrich as being out of touch with fierce opponents of illegal immigration.

Though Gingrich received applause from the audience for his answers on whether to extend the PATRIOT Act (he would) and how best to weaken Iran (produce more domestic energy), the former House Speaker found himself sandwiched on the issue of what to do with the milions of undocumented immigrations currently living in the U.S.

When asked to explain his 1986 vote in favor of the Immigration Reform and Control Act — also known as Simpson-Mazzoli — which granted amnesty to roughly three million illegal immigrants, Gingrich said he and other supporters of the bill were promised a set of goods that never materialized.

“We were going to get two things in return,” he said. “We were going to get control of the border and we were going to get a guest worker program with employer enforcement. We got neither.”

Gingrich said he’d now force some illegals to leave this country, but would let stay those that have been here for years.

“If you’ve come here recently, you have no ties to this country, you ought to go home. period. If you’ve been here 25 years and you got three kids and two grandkids, you’ve been paying taxes and obeying the law, you belong to a local church, I don’t think we’re going to separate you from your family, uproot you forcefully and kick you out.”

Though he never used the word, “amnesty,” Gingrich was immediately attacked for being weak on immigration.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, whom Gingrich has overtaken in the polls, pounced on the opportunity to distance himself from the former congressman.

“Amnesty is a magnet,” Romney said. “When we have had in the past, programs that have said that if people who come here illegally are going to get to stay illegally for the rest of their life, that’s going to only encourage more people to come here illegally.”

Moderator Wolf Blitzer of CNN followed by asking, “Are you saying that what he’s proposing, giving amnesty in effect, or allowing some of these illegal immigrants to stay, is a magnet that would entice others to come to this country illegally?”

“There’s no question,” replied Romney.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) joined in the onslaught against Gingrich.

“If I understood correctly, I think the speaker just said that that would make 11 people — 11 million people who are here illegally now legal.  That’s really the issue that we’re dealing with. And also, it would be the DREAM Act, the federal DREAM Act, which would offer taxpayer-subsidized benefits to illegal aliens.  We need to move away from magnets (ph), not offer more.”

As a tie-breaker, Texas Governor Rick Perry was also asked to weigh in. He sided with Romney and Bachmann.

“That’s one of the things that we obviously have to do is to stop those magnets for individuals to come in here.”

Later in the evening, an advisor to Gingrich suggested to me that his opponents looked weak for disagreeing with his more moderate views on illegal immigration.

“A lot of what you saw was the candidates on the defensive trying to step away or create some distance from his plans because his plans were so specific and so well-thought out,” said Ilan Berman, who serves as Vice President of the American Foreign Policy Council.

However, Eric Ferhnstrom, a spokesperson for Romney, told me that Gingrich’s position should serve as a red-flag to conservatives who do not support providing pathways to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

“Newt Gingrich supported the 1986 amnesty, and even though he conceded it was a mistake he’s willing to repeat that mistake by granting amnesty to today’s illegal immigrants.”