Your friendly neighborhood campaign spot correspondent, yesterday: “This reminds me of Romney’s constant touting of that state police program regarding illegal immigration as an accomplishment, even though his successor, Democrat Deval Patrick, rescinded it before it went into effect. Each time Romney cites it, I’m muttering to anyone in earshot, why are you doing this? Why?”

Romney campaign spokesman Kevin Madden:

This post has an error (referring to the highlighted passage)… The 287 (g) agreement that Governor Romney worked out between MA and the federal government DID go into effect. Deval Patrick did not rescind the agreement but instead later modified it to apply to state corrections officers. The agreement with ICE still stands and MA is listed as a partner on the web site touting the 287 (g) agreement.

I think Madden’s characterization is slippery.

The Boston Globe, January 12, 2007:

Governor Deval Patrick announced a plan yesterday to train a dozen correction officers in two state prisons to enforce immigration laws and rescinded a controversial agreement between Governor Mitt Romney and federal authorities that allowed State Police to arrest illegal immigrants.
Patrick said he has told his public safety secretary, Kevin M. Burke, to negotiate an agreement with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement that would allow six correction officers at MCI-Concord and six at MCI-Framingham to undergo four weeks of training to perform “limited immigration law enforcement” duties…
Following through on a recent promise, Patrick said he had scrapped a pact that Romney signed with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to train 30 troopers to arrest suspected illegal immigrants. That plan, Patrick said, would have taken troopers from their core duties, including combating violence, drug abuse, and gun trafficking…
Romney signed a 15-page agreement with ICE on Dec. 13 that would have assigned 30 troopers to five weeks of training, which was set to begin this month. But Burke said the training never started, and Patrick said last month that he was against the idea. During his campaign, he called the idea a “gimmick.”

Team Romney continues to cite the program as an example of Romney’s “action to enforce immigration laws.”

FACT: As Governor Of Massachusetts, Governor Romney Took Action To Enforce Immigration Laws. ENFORCEMENT: In December 2006, Governor Romney Signed A Memorandum Of Agreement With The Federal Government To Allow State Troopers To Enforce Federal Immigration Laws. “Governor Mitt Romney and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Assistant Secretary Julie L. Myers today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and ICE, which will give specially trained Massachusetts State Troopers the authority to administer and enforce federal immigration laws in the Commonwealth. ” (Office Of The Governor, “Governor Romney, ICE Sign Immigration Enforcement Pact,” Press Release, 12/13/06)

I’ll let the readers decide. Team Romney contends I’m wrong; I contend they’re being slippery. Patrick didn’t modify the agreement to get 30 state troopers involved in enforcing immigration law, he scrapped it and instituted his own, much smaller one that involved 12 corrections officers. And no training of those state troopers ever occurred, which is why I conclude it was “rescinded before it went into effect.”

UPDATE: A reader says that while he thinks I’m in the right, he doesn’t understand why I’m irked that Romney keeps touting this agreement. I do think Mitt Romney would be reasonably effective in cracking down on illegal immigration if he were the next President. But when a guy signs a pact like this in his last full month as governor, I wonder where this proposal was for the previous four years. Also, if Romney simply added a line — “this program was rescinded by my Democratic successor, and that demonstrates why you can’t trust the Democrats to deal with illegal immigration. They won’t even give good ideas a chance to succeed” – he would be on solid ground with the facts, and also be scoring points for the party as a whole on this issue.