Mitt Romney: I'm more conservative than President Trump on fate of DACA recipients

Eliza Collins | USA TODAY

Corrections and clarifications: This story has been updated to reflect Mitt Romney's comments referred to a position he held in 2012.

When Mitt Romney ran for president he thought that undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children “shouldn’t all be allowed to stay in the country legally” — a view that would make him more conservative than President Trump on the issue.

Romney, speaking during a Q&A in Provo, Utah, on Monday, was asked if the former presidential nominee considered himself to be conservative.

Romney said when he ran in 2012 he was “more of a hawk on immigration" than Trump is now.

"My view was these DACA kids shouldn’t all be allowed to stay in the country legally," Romney said, according to The Daily Herald.

“DACA kids” refers to the 800,000 undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and received protections from deportation under an Obama-era order, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Trump reversed that order in the fall and gave Congress six months to come up with a permanent solution. The legislative body has failed to move forward, but, a Supreme Court ruling last month means the program will continue through at least through the fall as it legal challenges run the normal course through the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Despite ending the program, Trump has said he wants to find a solution that would allow DACA recipients — and potentially more than 1 million other undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children but did not qualify for DACA — to stay in the United States legally. However, in exchange, the president has demanded $25 billion for a wall along the southern border and dramatic cuts to legal immigration, which Democrats say they cannot support.

"During his speech yesterday Gov. Romney made reference to his stance on immigration while running for president in 2012. Since then circumstances have changed. President Obama enacted DACA and Gov. Romney believes the commitment made by President Obama should be honored. Therefore, he agrees with President Trump's proposal to allow DACA recipients to legally stay in the country but does not support a special pathway to citizenship," spokeswoman MJ Henshaw told USA TODAY via email.

Romney, who is running in Utah's Senate race to replace retiring Orrin Hatch, said he fiscally more conservative than President Trump and many other Republicans. Congress passed — and Trump signed — a $1.3 trillion spending bill last week.

The former Massachusetts governor and the president have had a difficult history. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Romney called Trump a "phony," "fraud" and "con man." But they buried the hatchet after the election when Trump reportedly considered Romney to be secretary of State. The president has now endorsed Romney for the Senate seat.