Romney Uses the Term ‘Undocumented Illegals’ in Second Presidential Debate

Oct 17, 2012

It was awkward from the start. Her name was Lorainne and Mitt Romney wanted to call her "Loraina." At last night’s debate, host Candy Crowley introduced a Latina speaker as Lorraine Osorio, and it appears the GOP presidential candidate wanted to one-up the host and make sure this Latina wasn’t a Lorena. >CROWLEY: Lorraine Osorio has a question for you about a topic we have not… > >OBAMA: This is for Governor Romney? > >CROWLEY: It’s for Governor Romney, and we’ll be right with you, Mr. President. Thanks. < > ROMNEY: Is it Loraina? > > QUESTION: Lorraine. > > ROMNEY: Lorraine? > > QUESTION: Yes, Lorraine. > > ROMNEY: Lorraine. > > QUESTION: Mr. Romney, what do you plan on doing with immigrants > without their green cards that are currently living here as productive > members of society? Notice how Lorainne used "immigrants without their green cards" to phrase her question. Now take a look at how Romney answered. "We’re not going to round up 12 million people, undocumented illegals, and take them out of the nation," Romney said last night. "Instead, let people make their own choice." Self-deportation questions aside, was Romney about to use the more neutral "undocumented immigrant"? Maybe he caught himself and ended up saying "undocumented illegals"? According to the more recent survey of Latino voters, Obama enjoys the backing of 70 percent of likely Latino voters. T[he CNN/ORC International survey](http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/02/cnn-poll-obama-at-70-among-latino-voters/) also points out that number is slightly higher than the 67 percent of Latinos who voted for him in 2008.