Mitt Romney refuses to say whether he’d repeal the Obama administration’s decision to stop deporting certain undocumented immigrants. 
 
 In an interview with Bob Schieffer aired Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” the presumptive Republican presidential nominee five different times declined to answer whether he would conduct the same policy President Barack Obama on Friday announced his Department of Homeland Security will now pursue. 
 
 Instead of answering the question posed, Romney called for a permanent solution. 
 
 “With regards to these kids who were brought in by their parents through no fault of their own, there needs to be a long-term solution so they know what their status is,” Romney said. “This is something Congress has been working on, and I thought we were about to see some proposals brought forward by Sen. Marco Rubio and by Democrat senators, but the president jumped in and said I'm going to take this action, he called it a stop-gap measure. I don't know why he feels stop-gap measures are the right way to go.” 
 
 After Schieffer asked, directly, four additional times if Romney would repeal the policy without receiving an answer, Romney called the move political. 
 
 “I think the timing is pretty clear, if he really wanted to make a solution that dealt with these kids or with illegal immigration in America, than this is something he would have taken up in his first three and a half years, not in his last few months,” he said. 
 
 Romney has yet to offer an opinion on the merits of Obama’s immigration policy change. On Friday, he told reporters in New Hampshire that he supports Rubio’s proposal, which has yet to be introduced in the Senate. 
 
 On “Fox News Sunday,” Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol said Obama’s moved successfully undercut both Rubio and Romney. 
 
 “This was the anti-Marco Rubio initiative by the administration,” Kristol said. “They were scared. Sen. Rubio was about to introduce his version of the Dream Act, which would have been closer to what President Obama announced than the actual Democratic Dream Act. I wish Rubio had introduced it over the last month or two. He got stalled, not every Republican was on board, the Romney campaign’s been cautious about it.” 
 
 And Kristol said Romney, who during the GOP primary staked out a more conservative position on immigration than his opponents, in particular Texas Gov. Rick Perry, is now in a tight spot. 
 
 “This is a big problem for Romney,” Kristol said. “He needs to take the lead on this, and in my view embrace Marco Rubio’s Dream Act if that’s what he wants and say, ‘Let’s pass this in Congress over the next few months, this is what I’m for.” 
 
 Read more about: White House, Immigration, Mitt Romney, Bill Kristol ||||| As Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney prepares to make a move to appeal to Hispanic voters this week, he's in search of an "Etch-a-Sketch" moment that one of his top advisers alluded to earlier in the campaign season. 
 
 Romney, slated to speak Monday before members of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Los Angeles, needs to smooth over his relationship with the minority group after taking the most extreme anti-immigration position during the GOP primary. While most of his prepared speech focuses on economic issues, it also contains obviously toned down language on immigration aimed at winning Latino votes. 
 
 "Americans may disagree about how to fix our immigration system, but I think we can all agree that it is broken," said an excerpt of Romney's speech distributed by his campaign. "I will work with Republicans and Democrats to permanently fix our immigration system. America is a nation of immigrants and immigration is essential to our economic growth and prosperity." 
 
 [Read: Michele Bachmann bashes Obama on foreign policy.] 
 
 It's a marked change in how Romney discussed the issue when debating his Republican opponents. He had called on making life so difficult for illegal immigrants that they would "self-deport" and also has promised to veto the DREAM Act, which would provide a path to citizenship through education or military service for children of illegal immigrants brought here through no fault of their own. 
 
 Romney's speech also criticizes President Barack Obama for not passing comprehensive immigration reform when his party was in control of Congress. 
 
 "Candidate Obama said that one of his highest priorities would be to fix immigration in his first year in office," Romney is expected to say. "Despite his party having majorities in both house of Congress, the president never even offered up a bill. Like so many issues confronting our nation, when it comes to immigration, politics has been put ahead of people for too long." 
 
 The Obama campaign has already put out a Web video mocking Romney's apparent changing position on immigration policy as an "extreme makeover" akin to the popular home makeover television show. 
 
 [Check out U.S. News Weekly: an insider's guide to politics and policy.] 
 
 "Can Romney cover up his belief in self-deportation as an immigration solution with a bold new wallpaper choice?" says the video's narrator. "Will a new window treatment help disguise his cuts to education and college scholarships? If he does something amazing with spackle, will people forget he's promised over and over again to repeal Obamacare on Day One—denying millions of Latinos comprehensive healthcare coverage? And on his promise to veto the DREAM Act….well, duct tape can fix everything, can't it?" 
 
 A new poll shows just how wide the chasm is between Obama and Romney with Hispanic voters. After a slight improvement in his showing following the Republican National Convention, which took place in Florida and featured many top Latino politicians, Romney now again garners just a quarter of Hispanic voters and trails Obama by 42 percentage points, 68 percent to 26 percent. 
 
 The gender gap, which exists among voters of all races, is also pronounced among Latinos, according to the Latino Decisions tracking poll. Obama is winning Hispanic women, 74 percent to Romney's 21 percent, and leads 61 percent to 32 percent among men. 
 
 [Read: Media quick to overstate Romney's political demise.] 
 
 "Ugly framing about Latina fertility and their children in context of immigration position-taking probably led many Latinas to think Republicans were not in their corner well before they started parsing words defining rape, adopted a platform position to ban all abortion, and waged a fight against covering birth control," said analysis by Latino Decisions released with the survey. "It would be entirely shocking if Hispanic women suddenly became the champions of the party and candidates that put that phrase into the national lexicon." 
 
 The poll, released Monday, should also give the Romney campaign pause that targeting the economy alone will help make inroads with Latinos. The poll's analysis warns that for more than most, Latinas see the economy, jobs, immigration, and healthcare not as single issues. 
 
 "Things like jobs, economic concerns and healthcare are inextricably connected for this community," said the polling memo. "For example, Latina voters are likely to have more care-giving responsibilities than other voters, and less income. We know that Latinos lack healthcare at higher rates, have more children than non-Latino whites, and have more multi-generational households. 
 
 All of these factors make 'healthcare' more pressing for Latina voters who are concerned with their family's actual health, as well as the impact it can have on the household's economic stability." 
 
 Rebekah Metzler is a political writer for U.S. News & World Report. You can contact her at rmetzler@usnews.com or follow her on Twitter. ||||| President Obama flashed anger for the first time in recent memory today as an eccentric conservative reporter interrupted his speech on immigration in the Rose Garden. 
 
 Neil Munro of The Daily Caller, a conservative news site, shouted at Obama in the middle of his speech formally announcing looser deportation rules, "Why do you favor foreigners over American workers?" 
 
 Irritated, Obama glared at Munro and told him not to interrupt, said he "didn't ask for an argument" and said the new order is "the right thing to do." 
 
 The change on immigration relaxes rules for younger illegal immigrants who haven't broken the law since coming into the country as children, a move that has riled Republicans while bringing the issue back into the fore of the 2012 election. The Homeland Security Department will no longer deport such immigrants, and work permits will be given to them. 
 
 The more lenient treatment is similar to the proposals in the DREAM Act, legislation supported by Obama but blocked in Congress. 
 
 "We're a better nation than one that expels innocent young kids," Obama said in his speech before he was interrupted. 
 
 The Obama administration denied that politics played a role in the announcement, but the timing is ideal for the president's re-election campaign. In the GOP primary, Mitt Romney adopted strictly conservative positions against illegal immigration in his effort to woo right-wing voters. He backs a strong fence along the border with Mexico, opposes most amnesty and boasts of his move as Massachusetts governor to deny in-state tuition for illegal immigrants. 
 
 Democrats have said they plan to hold Romney to those positions, painting him as a candidate with extreme views on immigration. Romney's campaign stumbled last month when the Republican National Committee's director of Hispanic outreach told reporters that Romney was "still deciding what his position on immigration is," fueling the notion that he holds few true convictions. 
 
 Kevin Madden, a former Romney adviser, today said on MSNBC that, "there are going to be a lot more questions here, I think particularly up on Capitol Hill and the Congress' role in whether or not they believe that the president can go out and around Capitol Hill and around legislatures and around Congress on something like this." 
 
 Obama's announcement today is likely to curry favor with Hispanics, a key growing voting bloc that could determine the winner in November in important states like Florida, Colorado and Nevada. The president beats Romney among Hispanics in polls, but most Latinos say they disapprove of Obama's deportation policy. Obama also plans to speak to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials in Florida next week, as will Romney. 
 
 Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano today denied that the plan was crafted at the direction of the White House. 
 
 "No, this was developed by the department," she told ABC News. "It was developed within my office, and it was, as I said, before a logical progression from decisions we have been making over the last three, three-and-a-half years." 
 
 Under the new rules, up to 800,000 immigrants will be affected. Deportation will no longer apply to immigrants who came into the country before they were 16 and are now younger than 30, have lived here for five straight years, have never been convicted of a crime or graduated from high school or got a GED. 
 
 Such immigrants will be allowed to apply for a two-year work permit that can be renewed unlimited times. 
 
 Israel Velazquez, a 16-year-old who emigrated from Mexico when he was 2, told ABC News that he lived in fear of being deported in Asheboro, N.C., where he said the amount of immigration checkpoints in his area made it difficult to drive. Now, he said, his future looks more promising. 
 
 "This news helps me out," Israel said. "It gives me the opportunity to go through university without paying very much. It gives me the opportunity to work, to have a better career for myself, and it gives me the opportunity that my parents didn't have." 
 
 GOP Rep. Steve King of Iowa released a statement saying he was "outraged" by the new rules. "The American people have rejected amnesty because it will erode the Rule of Law," he said. "In much the same way, I believe the American people will reject President Obama for his repeated efforts to violate the Constitutional separation of powers." 
 
 Rep. Peter King of New York, the Republican chairman of the House committee on homeland security, said the White House is "overstepping its authority by weakening immigration laws without Congressional approval." 
 
 This story will be discussed Sunday on "This Week." Be sure to watch. 
 
 Kyle Blaine contribued reporting. ||||| MIAMI – In the Latino hotbed of Miami, Mitt Romney today hit back at Newt Gingrich’s claims that the former Massachusetts governor is “anti-immigrant” because of his policies on how to address the millions of undocumented immigrants in the country. 
 
 “It’s very sad for a candidate to resort to that sort of epithet,” Romney told Univision’s Jorge Ramos at a Univision forum here. “It’s just inappropriate. There are differences between candidates on different issues, but we don’t attack each other with those types of terrible terms. I’m not anti-immigrant, I’m pro-immigrant. I like immigration. Immigration has been an extraordinary source of strength in this country, as I’m sure you know. Immigrants form more businesses than do domestic-born Americans. The immigrant population in this country has created great vitality in our economy as well as in our culture. 
 
 “Actually, he was asked on the Laura Ingraham show whether he supported self-deportation and he said yes,” Romney added. “And his spokesman also indicated, said that the speaker supports self-deportation, the concept of self-deportation. And so, unfortunately for him, these are things he’s already spoken out about and he’s spoken out about them in favor. 
 
 “I recognize that its very tempting to come out to an audience like this and pander to the audience and say what you hope the audience will want to hear,” Romney said, “but, frankly, I think that’s unbecoming of a presidential candidate, and I think that was a mistake on his part.” 
 
 Ramos also asked Romney flat out, “How much money do you have?” 
 
 Romney responded: “Actually I disclosed a financial disclosure statement all of my assets are known and I think the estimate in there was a pretty wide range it’s been widely reported and my net worth is within that number. It’s between 150 and 200-and-some-odd million dollars.” 
 
 Ramos later pressed Romney on a confrontation he had two weeks ago with Lucy Allain, a student from Peru who has a 4.0 GPA but no path to citizenship. Romney said that if elected president, he would veto the DREAM Act, a bill that would provide a path to citizenship for some children of undocumented immigrants who join the military or attend college here. 
 
 “I’m not punishing her,” Romney said. 
 
 At an event earlier this month in New Hampshire, Romney touted his Mexican roots, noting that his father lived there until he was five or six years old. According to Ramos, this would make Romney a Mexican-American, so does Romney consider himself to be one? 
 
 “I don’t people would think I was being honest with them if I said I was Mexican-American,” said Romney, admitting that he would “love to be able to convince people of that, particularly in a Florida primary.” 
 
 According to a new poll conducted by Latino Decisions for ABC News and Univision, if the general election were held today Romney would only have 25 percent support from Hispanics nationwide, compared to 67 percent for President Obama. With an estimated 12.2 million Latinos set to vote later this year, according to projections, that would likely be enough to hand Obama another term in the White House. 
 
 “Just wait,” Romney quipped. “We’ll get that quote out where you say I’m Mexican-American and I’ll do a lot better.” 
 
 In Florida, where about one in 10 likely Republican primary voters are Latino, Romney has a large, 26-point lead over Gingrich, 49 percent to 23 percent among Latino Republicans. Among all Florida Latinos, the margin is 35 to 20 in favor of Romney, with 21 percent undecided. The former Massachusetts governor has not been able to secure the endorsements of the state’s popular Cuban-American U.S. senator, Marco Rubio, or the state’s former governor, Jeb Bush, but he has earned the support of three key Cuban-American lawmakers here, a fact that has likely helped him to gain a healthy advantage among that group. ||||| ABCNEWS.com ABC News' political team revisit the claims made by President Obama and Mitt Romney in last night's debate at Hofstra University. (Read the Full Transcript of the Second Presidential Debate and ABC News' Debate Analysis) 
 
 Romney and Arizona's Immigration Law OBAMA: He called the Arizona law a model for the nation. ... ROMNEY: I did not say that the Arizona law was a model for the nation in that aspect. I said that the E-Verify portion of the Arizona law, which is -- which is the portion of the law which says that employers could be able to determine whether someone is here illegally or not illegally, that that was a model for the nation. ABC's Chris Good reports: As Romney said, he did not call Arizona's controversial SB-1070 law a "model." In CNN's Feb. 22 Republican primary debate in Mesa, Ariz., moderator John King asked Romney about immigration. "What about arresting? Should there be aggressive, seek them out, find them and arrest them as the Sheriff Arpaio advocates?" King asked. Romney's response: "I think you see a model in Arizona. They passed a law here that says -- that says that people who come here and try and find work, that the employer is required to look them up on E-Verify. This e-verify system allows employers in Arizona to know who's here legally and who's not here legally." Although media outlets and fact checkers have pointed out that Romney was talking about E-Verify, that hasn't stopped Democrats from repeating this talking point against him. Obama made another claim that Romney's top adviser on immigration designed the SB1070 law. "His top adviser on immigration is the guy who designed the Arizona law, the entirety of it; not E-Verify, the whole thing," the president said. An informal Romney adviser, Kris Kobach, helped draft the SB-1070 law and filed a suit to stop Obama's administrative action. In September, Romney told Univision he had not met with Kobach. "He may well be part of a policy team," Romney said. "I have not met with him yet. And don't know whether he is or he is not." In April, the campaign described Kobach as a "supporter" rather than an advisor to Politico's Glenn Thrush, but Kobach then told ThinkProgress he was communicating regularly with senior Romney advisers. Kobach was still "providing advice on immigration policy," he told ThinkProgress. "I don't want to go into great detail, but I communicate regularly with senior members of Romney's team." 
 
 Does Obama's Pension Have Money in the Cayman Islands? During one exchange tonight Romney stated that President Obama's pension had investments in China and the Cayman Islands. ROMNEY: Just going to make a point. Any investments I have over the last eight years have been managed by a blind trust. And I understand they do include investments outside the United States, including in -- in Chinese companies. Mr. President, have you looked at your pension? Have you looked at your pension? OBAMA: I've got to say... ROMNEY: Mr. President, have you looked at your pension? OBAMA: You know, I -- I don't look at my pension. It's not as big as yours so it doesn't take as long. ROMNEY: Well, let me give you some advice. OBAMA: I don't check it that often. ROMNEY: Let me give you some advice. Look at your pension. You also have investments in Chinese companies. You also have investments outside the United States. You also have investments through a Cayman's trust. ABC News' Luis Martinez and Jason Ryan have the facts: Gov. Romney is referring to President Obama's pension with the state of Illinois during his time served as a State Senator. Under Agreements or Arrangements President Obama's Dec. 2011 Public Financial Disclosure Report for the Office of Government Ethics lists the General Assembly Defined Benefit Pension Plan as the only holding under this category. It says "no further contributions by former employer," funding began in 1997. The pension is managed by the General Assembly Retirement System, State of Illinois. The main site for the fund's reports is HERE The FY 2013 First Quarter Purchase and Sales Report mentions holdings in Chinese companies among the pension fund's numerous investments. The Romney campaign says the Obama Illinois Pension fund has numerous private equity investments, including one domiciled in the Cayman Islands, the Advent International Group VI-A. An independent search for this fund turned up this filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an investment opportunity by this fund. It lists the Advent International GPE VI Limited Partnership as being organized in the Cayman Islands. Other filings only list this particular fund's Executive offices as being listed in Boston, Mass. 
 
 Both Candidates Say They'll Grow Pell Grants ROMNEY: "I want to keep our Pell grant program growing and our loan program so that people are able to afford school." Romney's own education proposal, known as a "Chance for Every Child," would "[refocus] Pell Grant dollars on the students that need them most and place the program on a responsible long-term path that avoids future funding cliffs and last-minute funding patches." During a "Meet the Candidates" forum on Univision, Romney elaborated that he does not fully support all of Ryan's proposals for changes to Pell Grants, especially freezing the current rate. "The Republican budget called for a Pell Grants being capped out at their current high level. My inclination would be to have them go with the rate of inflation," Romney said Sept. 19. "It's important in higher education that we get serious about the fact that the inflation of tuition has been much faster than inflation generally. And my view is we have to hold down the rate of tuition increases and fee increases in higher education." If you buy Romney's claim that he has his own ideas for Pell Grants other than Ryan's proposals, it seems hard to disprove that he wants to keep it growing. OBAMA: "We've expanded Pell Grants for millions of people, including millions of young women, all across the country. We did it by taking $60 billion that was going to banks and lenders as middlemen for the student loan program, and we said, let's just cut out the middleman. Let's give the money directly to students. And as a consequence, we've seen millions of young people be able to afford college, and that's going to make sure that young women are going to be able to compete in that marketplace." Current law signed by President Obama sets the maximum grant at $5,645 in 2013 and $6,030 by 2017, enjoying increases based on inflation. About 9 million students receive Pell Grants, the biggest chunk of financial aid from the federal government. It has already grown about $900 since Obama took office. Republicans point to a government study that suggests the increase of Pell Grants has artificially driven up the price of tuition. Tuitions and fees for four-year public colleges increased 72 percent above inflation over the past decade, averaging $8,244 last year, according to the College Board, which represents more than 6,000 schools. Student loan debt in the U.S. is above $914 billion while the average borrower owes more than $24,000, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York says, according to the Associated Press. Most criticism of Romney's education proposals are tied to his presumed support of the Ryan Budget, which would reduce Pell Grants by increasing eligibility requirements and freezing the maximum grant at its current value of $5,550 according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. It also rescinds mandatory spending for Pell Grants and shifts the costs to annual appropriations bills. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found in a study that the Ryan budget's reforms were applied across the board, it would result in a $161 billion budget deficit, while the president's budget proposal would fall only $52 billion short. 
 
 Did Obama Call Libya Attack 'Terror' in the Rose Garden on Sept. 12? OBAMA: The day after the (Benghazi) attack I stood in the Rose Garden and I told the American people and the world that we are going to find out exactly what happened. That this was an act of terror and I also said we are going to hunt down those who committed this crime. ROMNEY: I think it's interesting that the President just said something which is that one the day after the attack, he went in the Rose garden and said this was an act of terror. (Obama nods) OBAMA (off-mike): That's what I said. ROMNEY: You said in the Rose Garden the day after the attack it was "an act of terror?" It was not a spontaneous demonstration. Obama: Please proceed. ROMNEY: Is that what you're saying? I want to make sure we get that for the record because it took the President 14 days before he called the attack in Benghazi an act of terror. OBAMA: Get the transcript. CROWLEY: He did in fact, sir ABC's Dana Hughes has the facts: Moderator Candy Crowley is right that Obama called the attack "act of terror" on Sept. 12th, the day after the attack. "No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for. Today we mourn four more Americans who represent the very best of the United States of America. We will not waver in our commitment to see that justice is done for this terrible act. And make no mistake, justice will be done," said the President that day. BUT - and there's a big but. Romney is right in that administration officials continued to say the attack was spontaneous, and came from a protest and it was White House Press Secretary Jay Carney who said the president considered it a terror attack on Sept. 26, 14 days later. A reporter asked Carney about the president's assessment between Sept. 12 and Sept. 26. "Is there any reason why the president did not - he was asked point-blank in 'The View' interview, is this a terrorist attack, yes or no? Is there any reason he didn't say 'yes'?" "He answered the question that was asked, and there's no reason that he chose the words he did beyond trying to provide a full explanation of his views and his assessment that we need to await further information that the investigation will uncover," said Carney. "But it is certainly the case that it is our view as an administration, the president's view, that is was a terrorist attack." Monday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accepted the blame for the Libya attack. Obama contradicted that at the debate Tuesday. 
 
 Candidates Spar on Oil and Natural Gas ROMNEY: In the last four years, you cut permits and licenses on federal lands and federal waters in half. OBAMA: Not true Gov. Romney ABC's Jonathan Karl has the facts: Romney is right that oil and natural gases drilling permits and licenses (leases) are down, but they are not down as much as Romney says. Here are the actual numbers, Bureau of Land Management: Permits in the FY2009-2011 dropped by 37 percent compared to FY2006-2008 Leases in FY2009-2011 dropped by 42 percent compared to FY2006-2008 Romney is basing his claim on the total number of acres leased - and there are 56 percent fewer acres leased RULING: Not Quite Factual ----- ROMNEY: And production on government land is down by 14 percent and production on gas is down 9 percent. Oil production on public lands did drop by 14 percent in 2011 and natural gas production did drop by 9 percent (according to the US Energy Information Agency). BUT - overall, oil production is actually up slightly from 2009 to 2011. RULING: Not Quite Factual ABC's Matt Larotonda and Zunaira Zaki have more: Here's the numbers, courtesy of the Department of Energy. In a nutshell: The trends are correct, but can Obama claim credit? OIL PRODUCTION HIGHEST IN 16 YEARS? Oil production is at its highest level in 16 years according to the Energy Information Administration. In 1996 the US produced 2.3 billion barrels of crude oil, a number that steadily decreased until reaching a bottom in 2008 at 1.8 billion barrels. Production has been steadily increasing year over year since 2009 and at current trends will eclipse 1996 by year's end. NATURAL GAS PRODUCTION HIGHEST IN DECADES? There is no wiggle room here. The sheer volume of natural gas produced in the US is actually the highest it's ever been. The last downward trend from the industry occurred between 2001 and 2006, when volume decreased from 24.5 million cubic feet to 23.5 million. In 2011 the country produced 28.5 million cubic feet. COAL PRODUCTION HIGHEST IN DECADES? Numbers have been on a steady increase, yes. In 2011, the U.S. produced 1.09 billion tons, compared to 1.07 billion 3.6 in 2000 and 1.02 billion 1990 and 800 million in 1980. But, coal production in the U.S. took a dive between 2008 and 2009, when it fell from 1.17 billion short tons to 1.07 billion and 2011 hadn't reached those 2008 levels. WHAT ABOUT THOSE INCREASES IN COAL EMPLOYMENT? A very small chunk of the population is employed by the coal industry, an average of 84,000 so far this year, down from 86,000 last year. President Obama is referring to last year's average, which was the highest yearly average since 1997, also according to BLS. However, Obama cannot take all the credit for the increase oil and natural gas production -- he did not invent fracking. Similarly he cannot be blamed for all the problems the coal industry is having. In addition to fracking's rise, natural gas is so cheap that it has become the energy source of choice rather than coal in many instances. 
 
 Did Obama Double the Deficit? ROMNEY: We have his own record which is we have four consecutive years where he said he was running for office he would cut the deficit in half, instead he has doubled it. ABC's Sunlen Miller has the facts: The Romney claim that Obama has "doubled the deficit" has been deemed false by numerous fact checking outlet including factcheck.org and PolitiFact. PoitiFact points out the only way to get to doubling is to use a different starting point, which is what the Romney campaign does. His campaign compares the current deficit to the final fiscal 2008 deficit of $458.6 billion. But that does not include the Wall Street bailout, first enacted under President Bush, which added more than $700 billion. One part though that the Romney claim is true. President Obama has not kept his promise to cut the deficit in half. PolitiFact argues that President Obama has actually cut the deficit by about 8 percent since he made the pledge in February of 2009. 
 
 Did Obama Follow Romney's Advice and 'Take Detroit Bankrupt'? ROMNEY: I know he keeps saying, you want to x. Well, the president took Detroit bankrupt. You took General Motors bankrupt. You took Chrysler bankrupt. So when you say that I wanted to take the auto industry bankrupt, you actually did. And I think it's important to know that that was a process that was necessary to get those companies back on their feet, so they could start hiring more people. That was precisely what I recommended and ultimately what happened. See the video here. ABC's Jon Karl has the facts: There are two assertions here: 1) That President Obama "took Detroit bankrupt;" and, 2) That the president did "precisely what I recommended." On the first, Romney is right. Chrysler and General Motors did go through a pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. On the second, he is wrong. The president's bailout included some $80 billion in public financing (the bailout in "auto bailout") to help Chrysler and GM to get through bankruptcy. Romney opposed direct public financing. This is a crucial distinction because most industry experts said there was no provide financing available. JON KARL'S RULING: Half True. ABC's Greg Krieg has more: Romney is technically correct; President Obama in March 2009 decided that the best way to revive the auto industry was for it to enter a brief bankruptcy. But it was not a bankruptcy like most other businesses will experience, as it lasted only one month and was backstopped by guarantees of billions of dollars from the federal government. Experts cite this as the significant difference between what President Obama did and what Romney proposed. Romney suggested that the automobile companies go through a standard bankruptcy, meaning they would have relied on private funds to bring them back to life. Obama, on the other hand, in a plan that began to take shape during the Bush administration - which kept the industry from afloat with more than $17 billion TARP funds diverted to Detroit -- ended up providing GM and Chrysler $80 billion in guaranteed taxpayer funds. In return, the government negotiated more favorable deals with the unions, who took wage hits and saw pension funds cut; creditors, who took a haircut on the money they were owed; and shareholders, who saw their stakes in the companies diminish in value. The concerned parties accepted these cutbacks as they were the preconditions for getting the government money - money that was not forthcoming from the private sector, as former auto czar Steve Rattner has said repeatedly, in the wake of the housing market and resulting banking industry collapses. 
 
 The Real Unemployment Rate? Romney said the unemployment rate now is 7.8 percent and the rate when Obama took office was 7.8 percent, but he argued the true rate is much higher today. "If you calculate if people dropped out of the work force would be 10 percent." ABC's Zunaira Zaki has the facts: He is about half right. If the labor force participation rate was exactly what it was when Obama came into office the unemployment rate would be nearly 11 percent. But economists say that the labor force is shrinking not just because people are too discouraged to look for work, but also because there is a surge in baby boomers retiring and people are staying in school longer. Here are two examples of research on this: 1. According to research by Daniel Sullivan and his team at the Chicago Federal Reserve about half of the decline in the labor force since 2000 is because of an increase in the aging population. They that goes into this. 2. Mark Zandi of Moody's Analytics concurs. Through his research he has established that the labor force participation rate has fallen by approximately 2.5 percentage points since the Great Recession hit. Of this, 1.5 percentage points is due to demographics, including boomers who are retiring, and 1 percentage points is due to poor economy. ||||| President Barack Obama eased enforcement of immigration laws Friday, offering a chance for hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to stay in the U.S. and work. Immediately embraced by Hispanics, the extraordinary step touched off an election-year confrontation with congressional Republicans. 
 
 Students from left: David Buenrostro, Adrian James, and Jahel Ramos protest outside the Obama campaign offices in Culver City, Calif., Thursday, June 14, 2012. The students demand that President Obama... (Associated Press) 
 
 "Let's be clear, this is not amnesty, this is not immunity, this is not a path to citizenship, this is not a permanent fix," Obama said from the White House Rose Garden. "This is the right thing to do." 
 
 The policy change will affect as many as 800,000 immigrants who have lived in fear of deportation. It bypasses Congress and partially achieves the goals of the "DREAM Act," congressional legislation that would establish a path toward citizenship for young people who came to the United States illegally but who attend college or join the military. 
 
 Under the administration plan, illegal immigrants will be immune from deportation if they were brought to the United States before they turned 16 and are younger than 30, have been in the country for at least five continuous years, have no criminal history, graduated from a U.S. high school or earned an equivalent decree, served in the military. They also can apply for a work permit that will be good for two years with no limits on how many times it can be renewed. 
 
 Obama said the change would become effective immediately to "lift the shadow of deportation from these young people." 
 
 The step, to be carried out by the Department of Homeland Security, comes one week before Obama plans to address the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials' annual conference in Florida. Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney is to speak to the group on Thursday. 
 
 "Many of these young people have already contributed to our country in significant ways," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano wrote in a memorandum describing the administration's action. "Prosecutorial discretion, which is used in so many other areas, is especially justified here." 
 
 The policy closely tracks a proposal being drafted by Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a potential vice presidential running mate for Romney, as an alternative to the DREAM Act, formally the Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors Act.
– As Republicans pounced on President Obama's immigration shift, Mitt Romney was surprisingly noncommittal when asked today no fewer than five times whether he'd repeal the policy. Instead, Romney, who needs to make tracks with lukewarm Latino voters, called for a "long-term solution." He further blasted Obama's move as political, saying that he'd had "three and a half years" to find a meaningful solution. "I don't know why he feels that stop-gap measures are the right way to go," Romney said, adding that he'd hoped Marco Rubio's plan would have proven to be a winner. Elsewhere on the Sunday dial, as per Politico: Bill Kristol on Romney and immigration: “This is a big problem for Romney. He needs to take the lead on this, and in my view embrace Marco Rubio’s Dream Act if that’s what he wants and say, ‘Let’s pass this in Congress over the next few months." Rick Santorum on Romney's immigration reaction: He's “trying to walk a line as not to sound like he’s hostile to Latinos." Romney needs to "hammer on the president on this now habitual abuse of power." Santorum on working for Romney: “It’s pretty much a flat 'no.' And it’s not because I don’t want to help Gov. Romney, it’s just for me it’s a matter of my priorities and my time of being a husband and a father. I have to take care of them.” John McCain on Obama's immigration shift: “I don’t recall a time when any president has basically said, ‘we’re not going to enforce a law that’s on the books.' I don’t think a Mitt Romney as president of the United States would say, 'we’re not going to enforce existing laws. That’s the first time I’ve ever heard of a president doing that.” Romney on Europe's financial woes: “We’re not going to bail out the European banks... Europe is capable of dealing with their banking crisis if they choose to do so." Romney on wife Ann's horse making the Olympics: “She’s quite thrilled, and I’m sure she’ll be watching. I have a campaign to attend to so I wont be able to see it perform." Also: "I joke that I’m going to have to send her to Betty Ford for an addiction to horses.”