“But I think time is running out for that to happen,” Romney, the GOP’s 2012 presidential candidate, told reporters after a campaign rally for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Joni Ernst in Cedar Rapids.

“I do believe it’s important for us, before the presidential contest in 2016, to finally have immigration reform in place,” he said. “I just don’t think it’s healthy for the country to continue to have this issue open and unresolved, particularly with so many families that are waiting for the answers.”

Some families have been “waiting for years and years to understand what the status is of those who have come here illegally in the past, and those that want to come here legally to know what their prospects are.”