SALON

Thursday, Jan 5, 2012 4:00 PM UTC

Romney and adviser at odds on immigration

Charlie Black lobbied for the DREAM Act, which the candidate has promised to veto

By

Topics: 2012 Elections, Immigration, Immigration Reform, Lobbying, Lobbyists, Mitt Romney, ,

Romney and adviser at odds on immigration Charlie Black(Credit: AP)

An informal adviser to the Mitt Romney campaign recently lobbied Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform and the DREAM Act, stances that are at odds with Romney’s increasingly hard-line position on the immigration in general and opposition to the DREAM Act in particular.

Longtime Republican operative Charlie Black, who was a top aide to the John McCain campaign in 2008, has joined Romney’s “circle of informal advisers,” the New York Times reported this week. After McCain lost, Black rejoined as chairman the high-powered bipartisan lobbying firm he founded in the 1980s, which is now called Prime Policy Group.

Disclosure records show that in early 2011, Black, personally lobbied for Wal-Mart on the issue of the DREAM Act, which would extend permanent resident status to illegal immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children and meet various achievement requirements. Wal-Mart has been a prominent voice in favor of comprehensive immigration reform. Prime Policy Group was paid $60,000 by Wal-Mart in the first quarter of 2011 for lobbing on immigration and other issues.

In 2010, Black also worked on the account of the National Immigration Forum Action Fund to lobby Congress for comprehensive immigration reform, records show. Prime Policy was paid $30,000 over seven months. The Washington-based National Immigration Forum, which “advocates for the value of immigrants and immigration to our nation,” holds many positions that are anathema to many Republican primary voters and directly opposed to Romney’s stances.

Romney has picked immigration as the issue on which to go after his generally more conservative opponents from the right. Campaigning in Iowa last week, Romney promised to veto the DREAM Act if it came to his desk as president, a position Democrats have already pounced on. In a November debate, Romney went after Newt Gingrich for advocating “amnesty,” arguing that allowing any path to citizenship and benefits like in-state tuition for illegal immigrants would create a “magnet” for more immigrants. And in September, Romney mocked Rick Perry’s statement that those who oppose education for young illegal immigrants “don’t … have a heart.”

All of that is in opposition to Black’s long-standing position on immigration.

“I have supported comprehensive immigration reform going back to the Reagan days,” Black told Salon in an email. “Sometimes as a paid consultant. Usually not. I do not, however, advise Mitt Romney on issues.”

I asked Black about his statement to the New York Times that he “offer[s] advice occasionally” to the Romney campaign. “Not on issues,” he responded. “My background is as a political organizer, not a policy adviser.”

The Romney campaign declined to comment.

Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, said that the group hired Black because of his longtime commitment to reform and “his commitment to a rational immigration system.”

“We worked closely with him in engaging different members of Congress,” Noorani said. The contract was terminated at the end of June 2010 because the legislative window for comprehensive reform had closed, Noorani said.

Black was the subject of scrutiny when he was a McCain adviser in 2008 because he had lobbied over the years for various foreign dictators and human rights abusers, including Angolan guerilla leader Jonas Savimbi.

Since returning to lobbying, Black was worked for Google, the National Association of Homebuilders, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, and Boeing, among many others. In 2010 and early 2011, Black’s Prime Policy Group also lobbied for Goldline, the company that sells gold on Glenn Beck’s programs. In November, executives for the company were charged with theft and fraud.

Justin Elliott is a reporter for ProPublica. You can follow him on Twitter @ElliottJustin More Justin Elliott.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 2 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations