Romney touted his anti-immigrant record in Massachusetts early, saying that working with INS to deport immigrants was one of the acts of his governorship of which he was most proud. He drew major league applause for his “deport them all statement”.

Newt Gingrich hit back by saying that he would drop the Federal lawsuit against Arizona’s anti-immigrant law SB-1070.

Interesting early focus on immigration because the question wasn’t on that topic.

None of the candidates are getting many style points tonight. This debate comes after a two week layoff in the debate schedule and they all look out of practice. The audience has gotten ugly a few times tonight, throwing both Santorum and Romney off their messages.

Polls show Romney with a strong lead in the Arizona Republican primary, but this is also the last debate before the ultra-tight Michigan primary. It is Romney’s best chance to try to put Santorum away.

An hour into the debate, the focus returned to immigration after a fruitless discussion of birth control.

Ron Paul said that America needs to stop “rewarding illegal immigrants” and begin prosecuting them for trespassing.

Romney said that Arizona is a model for how America should deal with immigration. He said he will mandate E-Verify checks of all workers. Santorum said that enforcement should focus less on employers and more on arresting individuals who are in the U.S. illegally.

The polls do not show the impact of the resignation of Romney’s Arizona campaign chairman Paul Babeu over the weekend when Babeu was accused of threatening a former sex partner with deportation.

The NY DREAM Act would remove prohibitions on student aid eligibility based on immigration status.

Sheriff Babeu (r) and "Jose" (l)

Many of us saw John McCain campaign three years ago for Senate alongside Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu in his infamous “Complete the danged fence” commercial. Now Arizona’s second most anti-immigrant sheriff is accusedof threatening a former sex partner with deportation as a way of controlling him. According to the Phoenix New Times:

The latest of the alleged threats were made through Babeu’s personal attorney, who’s also running the sheriff’s campaign for Congress in District 4, the ex-lover says.

He says lawyer Chris DeRose demanded he sign an agreement that he would never breathe a word about the affair. But Jose (New Times is withholding his last name because Babeu and his attorney have challenged his legal status) refused.

The 34-year-old from central Mexico charges that the sheriff’s lawyer warned against mentioning the affair with Babeu. DeRose said gossip about Babeu would focus attention on Jose, attention that could result in his deportation, Jose says.

Melissa Weiss-Riner, Jose’s attorney, confirms her client’s account.

She says she spoke directly to the sheriff’s lawyer, DeRose, about the Babeu camp’s threats that Jose could be deported if he “revealed the relationship.” She says DeRose falsely claimed that Jose’s visa had expired.

“Jose came to our firm because he felt he was being intimidated, and he was in fear for his life,” Weiss-Riner says. “He wanted his legal rights protected.”

The sheriff and the senator

Babeu didn’t respond to requests for comment by publication time for this article, but his attorney, DeRose, says the dispute between Jose and the sheriff concerned Jose’s work on Babeu’s websites. He says Jose was a former volunteer who hacked into a campaign website.

DeRose didn’t immediately address the other claims against him and the sheriff, except to say, “I never threatened to deport anybody” and that “[Babeu's] not threatening anybody.”

Jose says he created and maintained Babeu’s campaign websites, his Facebook page, and his Twitter account. Babeu didn’t pay him for his online services, he claims.

Jose says Babeu told him that he loved him and was with him exclusively. But Jose suspected Babeu was lying. The relationship soured, and Jose believes that Babeu sent DeRose after him. He says DeRose demanded the passwords to Babeu’s websites and social-media accounts. Jose says he complied but that Babeu and his attorney also wanted Jose to sign a document that would bind him legally to keep silent about the relationship.

Jose shared text messages between him and Babeu with New Times. A September 4, 2011, text from the sheriff reads: “You can never have business after this and you will harm me and many others in the process . . . including yourself & your family.”

A couple of minutes later, Babeu followed with: “And you say you have loved me? Papi . . . this is no good.”

Jose responded: “Good threats. Wont work. Im already hurt me . . . and you didn’t care.”

They exchanged more texts on September 6.

Jose: “Dont threat me. Thats illegal. Im just speaking . . . true.”

Babeu: “You have crossed the line. Better get an attorney. You brother will also be contacted.”

The following day, on September 7, DeRose sent an e-mail directly to Jose ordering him to “cease and desist.”

In addition to the text messages and e-mails, Jose shared letters from Melissa Weiss-Riner to Chris DeRose and photographs of Babeu and of him and Babeu together. He and his lawyer sat for several extensive interviews with New Times over the past month. He says he reached out to New Times because he was tired of living in fear. 

Update: Babeu has resigned as chairman of Mitt Romney’s Arizona Campaign.

There was a rush to sign police forces up to 287(g) contracts after the World Trade Center attacks, but widespread abuses, like racial profiling, by police forced the Obama administration to take a second look at the program and few new contracts have been signed over the last three years. In fact, there has been a counter trend of revoking the deputizations to police agencies like Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s department in Arizona.

287(g) has been responsible for some of the worst race-based police practices since the 1960s and hopefully it will not be resurrected next year.

We don’t often hear the voices of those most harmed by this racist law. Take two minutes to listen.

Spota has turned over $17,500 to the Workplace Project, which organizes immigrant workers. Levy once denounced the group as a bunch of anarchists and communists.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy

The Obama administration isn’t doing enough to crack down on illegal immigration and its focus on deporting those with criminal records is too narrow, U.S. House Republican lawmakers said.

During a hearing today before the House Appropriations homeland security subcommittee, Republicans told Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano that she’s neglecting to remove from the U.S. the majority of illegal immigrants who are law-abiding.

“It does sound like the administration has implemented de facto amnesty,” said Representative John Culberson, a Texas Republican.

Representative Bob Aderholt, an Alabama Republican, said: “This administration chooses to apply the term ‘priorities’ as a convenient excuse to avoid enforcing our immigration laws.”

Congress provides money for deporting 350,000 to 400,000 people a year among an estimated 10 million to 11 million who are in the country illegally, Napolitano said. The administration has decided to give priority to removing those who pose a danger or are national security threats.

Does Mitt Romney have a death wish?

If not, what explanation could there be for him seeking the endorsement of Pete Wilson, the long-forgotten former Republican governor of California, who is universally despised by Latinos, the fastest growing voting block in the country?

While governor, Wilson did everything in his power to enact Proposition 187, the infamous 1994 California ballot measure that would have cut off many public services to undocumented immigrants and was a precursor to anti-immigration laws of Arizona, Alabama and other states. His support for Proposition 187 didn’t work out too well for the GOP, provoking a massive flight of Latino voters to the Democratic party.

“Pete Wilson is the best organizer of Latino voters I’ve ever known,” said Eliseo Medina, international secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union. “He has done more to motivate Latinos to become citizens, to register to vote, and to actually turnout on Election Day than anyone before or since.”

Wilson has now joined the ranks of a growing group of extremists — people like Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the leading architect of the Alabama and Arizona laws — who have flocked to the Romney camp in the belief he is the only one among the wacky field of GOP presidential wannabes with a chance of defeating President Obama.

Something is certain: Romney’s extreme positions on immigration and the notoriety of some of the people he has surrounded himself with are not helping him win the hearts and minds of Latino voters.

“Because he attracted such lightning rod figures (Wilson and Kobach) Latinos are going to take a hard look before voting for Romney,” said Patrick Young, a writer for the New York Immigration Action Fund website. “He has moved so far to the right compared to McCain and George W. Bush, that next to him, even Gingrich sounds moderate.

“His anti-immigrant stance is going to hurt him and is going to hurt the GOP,” Young concluded.

As Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) stated: “There’s a saying in Spanish that says it all: Dime con quién andas y te diré quién eres. Tell me with whom you walk and I will tell you who you are. We now know who Mitt Romney is.”