A press briefing meant to promote the Republican National Committee’s efforts to reach out to Hispanic voters went awry when the committee’s director of Hispanic Outreach said Mitt Romney had not yet established an immigration policy.
“My understanding that he is still deciding what his position on immigration is,” said Bettina Inclan, the RNC’s Director of Hispanic Outreach when asked how she planned to deal with concerns from Hispanic voters that Republican policies on immigration are too restrictive.
Within an hour of the briefing’s conclusion, Inclan sent a tweet from her account saying, “I misspoke, Romney's position on immigration is clear,” with a link to the page on Romney’s immigration policy from his website.
The episode, which occurred the same day as President Obama's campaign released its second round of Spanish-language radio and TV ads, demonstrated the fledgling nature of the GOP operation as it gears up to try to reduce Obama's huge lead among Latino voters. Aside from a pledge to contact those voters and devote resources to bilingual communication, the RNC’s plans are still in the works.
Romney moved to the right of most of his rivals in immigration during the primary, espousing a policy of “self-deportation” for people in the country illegally and has opposed a federal Dream Act that would provide citizenship to illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children who choose to attend college or serve in the military.
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