Miami, Florida (CNN) -- Responding angrily to a campaign ad from Newt Gingrich accusing him of being anti-immigrant, Mitt Romney insisted during last week's Republican debate at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville that he has no problem with immigrants. Perhaps not. But the dishonest and cynical way in which the former governor of Massachusetts has dealt with the immigration issue on the campaign trail shows that he has a problem being consistent. In Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, Romney attacked Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich for immigration proposals that Romney said amounted to "amnesty" for illegal immigrants.
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Ruben Navarrette Jr. says Mitt Romney has been inconsistent on the immigration issue
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He says that on the campaign trail, Romney had advanced a position that is anti-immigrant
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Navarrette: But in Florida Romney has softened his stance
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He says that Latinos don't forget so easily Romney's previous anti-immigrant rhetoric
I bet none of this is going over very well with the voters in the first three primary states who cast their lots for @placeholder, thinking he was going to be tough on illegal immigration only to find out that he doesn't even have the stomach to forcibly deport undocumented immigrants.