Romney talks tough on illegal immigration

Mitt Romney, trying to capitalize on angst about illegal immigration among the Republican rank-and-file, is airing a new TV ad in Iowa and New Hampshire promising to get tough.

In the ad, as Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Barack Obama are pictured, Romney says Clinton and other Democrats "have it wrong on illegal immigration" with their support for a comprehensive reform that offered a path to citizenship for some of the 12 million undocumented workers already in the country, if they paid fines and back taxes and met other requirements. That initiative, which was supported by President Bush and Republican presidential hopeful John McCain, failed in Congress earlier this year.

Romney and other critics of that plan call it amnesty. Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson are also proposing tough measures to stem illegal immigration.

In the ad, Romney also says he will cut federal funding from cities that don't enforce federal immigration law. The former Massachusetts governor claims credit for opposing driver's licenses and in-state tuition for illegal immigrants, and also for getting authority for State Police to arrest illegal aliens, though that program was rescinded by Governor Deval Patrick, who succeeded Romney, before it took effect.

"Legal immigration is great, but illegal immigration – that's got to stop," he concludes in the ad.