Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on Wednesday ridiculed rival Mitt Romney's call for self-deportation of illegal immigrants as an "Obama-level fantasy" that would be inhumane to long-established families living in the United States. The former House speaker's comments came during a forum Wednesday with the Spanish-language network Univision as the Republican candidates to face President Barack Obama in November make their first big pitch to the country's growing Hispanic population.
The state of Florida, heavy with Hispanic voters, is the next and biggest state so far to weigh in on the nominating process. Florida votes January 31. Immigration is a key issue 13 percent of Florida's registered voters are Hispanic and Gingrich laughed at the idea of self-deportation, saying it wouldn't work.
During a debate earlier this week, Romney said he favours self-deportation over policies that would require the US government to round up millions of illegal immigrants and send them back to their home countries. Advocates of Romney's approach argue that illegal immigration can be curbed by denying them public benefits, forcing them to leave the United States on their own.
"You have to live in a world of Swiss bank accounts and Cayman Island accounts and automatically $20 million income for no work to have some fantasy this far from reality," Gingrich said, alluding to details in Romney's income tax returns made public on Tuesday. "For Romney to believe that somebody's grandmother is going to be so cut off that she is going to self-deport, I mean this is an Obama-level fantasy."
But Gingrich's campaign has spoken of the self-deportation policy as well. Romney's campaign directed reporters to past comments by Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond, who said only a small percent of illegal immigrants would likely be allowed to stay in the US under Gingrich's immigration plan. Hammond said the vast majority of them would likely "self-deport."
At the forum, Gingrich spoke instead about border control and establishing a guest-worker program to better manage the influx of immigrants. Gingrich said he favours a path to citizenship for illegal immigrant children who serve in the military but not for simply completing college.
As to communist Cuba, not far off Florida's southern shore, Gingrich said he would be open to using everything up to covert operations to replace stalwart Fidel Castro's regime. "Hands off Cuba, that's baloney," he said. "The people of Cuba deserve freedom."