Mitt Romney and His "Illegals"

Looks like the story of Mitt Romney and his "illegal" gardeners is still haunting him.  The back and forth continued at Tuesday's CNN debate in Las Vegas.  The emphasis is mine:

“We hired a lawn company to mow our lawn, and they had illegal immigrants that were working there. And when that was pointed out to us, we let them go,” said Romney, as Perry interrupted him again. “I suggest if you want to become president you have to allow both people to speak.”

“So we went to the company and we said, look, you can’t have any illegals working on our property,” said Romney. “I’m running for office, for Pete’s sake, I can’t have illegals. It turns out that once question, they hired someone who had falsified their documents, had documents, and therefore we fired them.”

So, he didn't let the gardeners go because he felt it his duty to comply with the law?  He did it so he wouldn't look bad?  Because he was running for office?

Anyone else read it this way?  If so, there is nothing left to say about Mitt Romney's character.