Romney Will Pledge to ‘Fix’ U.S. Immigration System in Los Angeles

According to excerpts of the speech released to the media, Romney will court Latinos by reminding them about Obama's inability to pass immigration reform and calling it a failure on his part.

By Jorge Rivas Sep 17, 2012

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will be visiting Los Angeles on Monday to deliver a speech in front of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce where he is expected to pledge he will fix the troubled U.S. immigration system. According to excerpts of the speech released to the media, Romney will court Latinos by reminding them about Obama’s inability to pass immigration reform and calling it a failure on his part. "Candidate Obama said that one of his highest priorities would be to fix immigration in his first year in office. Despite his party having majorities in both houses of Congress, the president never even offered up a bill," Romney will say, [according to an excerpt of the planned speech obtained by Reuters. ](http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/17/us-usa-campaign-romney-idUSBRE88C17C20120917?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+reuters/topNews+%28News+/+US+/+Top+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader) Romney will vow to "work with Republicans and Democrats to permanently fix our immigration system," while stressing that any plan must first ensure the integrity of U.S. borders – a problem on which the Obama administration says it has already made progress. The comments come at no surprise. At an April fundraiser in Palm Beach, Florida Romney told his donors he would get the Latino vote by [reminding them Obama didn’t pass immigration reform for them like he promised. ](https://colorlines.com/archives/2012/04/mitt_romney_not_winning_latino_vote_spells_doom_for_us.html) "I believe we can all agree that what we need are fair and enforceable immigration laws that will stem the flow of illegal immigration, while strengthening legal immigration," [Romney will say.](http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/17/us-usa-campaign-romney-idUSBRE88C17C20120917?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+reuters/topNews+%28News+/+US+/+Top+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader) President Obama leads Romney by two to one with Latino. [According to CBS News,](www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57513859/romney-targets-hispanic-business-owners/?tag=cbsContent;cbsCarousel) Romney is speaking in front of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce because part of his strategy to cut into that margin is by targeting an estimated three million Latino business owners. In the speech preview made available by the Romney campaign, the GOP candidate did not get into the specifics of how he would improve the deep divide between Democrats and Republicans on immigration issues.