Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is accusing two other candidates of being in a "sanctuary state of mind." During a news conference this morning in Sioux City, Romney railed against illegal immigration.
Romney said no other Republican or Democrat has a tougher stance on the issue. "We’re not going to give people who are here illegally drivers licenses, nor are we going to give them tuition breaks in our institutions of higher learning," Romney said. "This ‘sanctuary state of mind’ which exists from Hillary Clinton to Mayor Giuliani to Governor Huckabee is simply an attitude we’re going to have to change."
An account posted previously on www.radioiowa.com erroneously reported Romney had referred to rival Tom Tancredo in reference to the immigration issue. Romney’s only mention of Tancredo came when another reporter asked Romney if he would support the GOP’s nominee, and Romney mentioned all his rivals, including Tancredo.
Romney has repeatedly rapped rival Rudy Giuliani for making the city hospitalable to illegal immigrants while he was mayor of New York. And Romney said both Giuliani and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton have supported college tuition breaks for illegal immigrants.
The "sanctuary state of mind" phrase is a play on the Billy Joel tune, "New York State of Mind" as both Clinton and Giuliani are New Yorkers.
Jarrod Agen, an Iowa-based spokesman for Giuliani, issued the following response: "Once again Presidential Trail Mitt Romney completely ignores the record of Governor Mitt Romney. Under Governor Mitt Romney the number of illegal immigrants skyrocketed, while he recommended millions of dollars in state aid to numerous sanctuary cities and to companies employing illegal immigrants, not to mention the illegals working on his own lawn."