“Utah welcomes legal immigrants from around the world,” Romney said in a recorded video. “Washington sends immigrants a message of exclusion.”
Pressed further that day, Romney, a Republican, said that he had opposed a law to allow immigrants brought to America as children to have some legal protection but that was “water under the bridge” because then-President Barack Obama had made “representations” that have changed the circumstances.
More than a month into his campaign, Romney now says that the so-called Dreamers – named after the DREAM Act that would have protected them from deportation – should have to justify gaining any legal status – thought not citizenship – by attending college or serving in the military or becoming a teacher.