Earlier this year, when the debate over the compromise immigration bill was at its height, Mitt Romney offered a simple solution: enforce the law. It sounded almost too simplistic. Could it be possible that all that was needed to resolve the illegal immigration issue was to enforce the law? The answer also seems almost too simple: yes.

At the end of the day, the problem with illegal immigration is one of execution. All the basic elements of a good immigration system are already the law. Laws have been passed requiring the federal government to secure the border, build a fence, implement an employer verification system, etc. For whatever reason, past administrations have failed to execute those laws. Thus, Mitt Romney’s answer, that we need to enforce the law, is indeed the right answer. To further encourage legal immigration and discourage illegal imigration, Mitt Romney has also talked about the need to “streamline the system to recruit and retain skilled workers and welcome the best and the brightest from around the world to our universities.”

Other candidates still think that such a simple solution is somehow ill-suited for a complex problem. They have had or continue to defend policies that would encourage illegal immigration: special pathways to citizenship, sanctuary cities, special scholarships, etc. All these policies would maintain America as a magnet for illegality and disrespect for our immigration laws. Somehow the simple elegance of executing current laws has eluded these candidates.

But enough of my exposition. Hear Governor Romney in his own eloquence:

Enforce the laws


The problem with a special pathway for illegal immigrants


The problem with sanctuary cities


The problem with scholarships for illegal immigrants