Immigration reform seen as strategy to woo Latinos

by Daniel González - Nov. 10, 2012 11:19 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com

Days after President Barack Obama won re-election with the overwhelming support of Latino voters, a groundswell of Republican leaders and prominent conservatives are calling for immigration reforms that include legalizing millions of undocumented immigrants.

Among the politically powerful Republicans who have called for immigration reform since Tuesday's election are House Speaker John Boehner and Arizona Sen. John McCain. After leading on the issue in the past, McCain had disavowed immigration reform in 2010 during his tough re-election campaign.

Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who won election on Tuesday to replace retiring Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., also threw his support behind immigration reform. Flake, too, had championed reform in the past but backed away from the issue during his Senate campaign.

Meanwhile, prominent Fox News talk-show host Sean Hannity and syndicated columnist and Fox News analyst Charles Krauthammer, two ardent conservative opponents of immigration "amnesty," say there is one lesson Republicans must learn from their defeat: They must support a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants if they want the support of Latino voters.

The sudden move to embrace immigration reform by Republican leaders and conservatives so soon after the election shows how politically powerful the Latino vote has become. Obama received 75 percent of the Latino vote, surpassing former President Bill Clinton's previous record of 72 percent, according to a Latino Decisions/America's Voice poll.

It also shows how Mitt Romney's decision to follow the strident immigration-enforcement strategy set forth by Arizona Republicans such as Gov. Jan Brewer and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio hurt him deeply with Latino voters.

"I am not sure it cost him, but I have no doubt it had an impact," said Jaime Molera, a Republican political consultant from Phoenix.

More moderate voices on the issue within the Republican Party include former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the brother of former President George W. Bush, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, all of whom favor comprehensive immigration reform. They urged Romney to soften his tone.

"The extreme right wing of the Republican Party is led by Governor Brewer, Congressman Steve King (of Iowa) and Sheriff Arpaio. They were the problem for Mitt Romney on Tuesday," said Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, an advocacy group in Washington, D.C., that pushes for immigration reform. "If Mitt Romney had followed the leadership of Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham, he would be the president-elect today."

Instead, Romney enlisted the advice of Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the author of Arizona's immigration-enforcement law, Senate Bill 1070. He also made comments during the primary and the second debate that illegal immigrants should "self-deport" and that Arizona's tough stance on illegal immigration should be a model for the nation.

All of which hurt him with Latino voters, said Eliseo Medina, the secretary-treasurer of the Service Employee International Union, a labor group that backs comprehensive immigration reform.

"I think that sealed the Latinos' impressions of the Republican Party and of Romney, and after that primary there was nothing that Romney could have said, no matter how much money he spent," Medina said.

Brewer, meanwhile, is not backing away from her tough stance on immigration. She said that while Tuesday's "disappointing" election results had returned illegal immigration to the forefront, "we must not rush headlong into a 'solution' that only makes things worse."

"Right now, there are well-meaning people -- including some in my own party -- who are advocating a grand bargain in which the American people would be promised border security in exchange for the granting of amnesty to tens of millions of illegal aliens. We've been here before," Brewer said in a written statement.

She said the 1986 amnesty signed by her "idol" President Ronald Reagan failed because the border wasn't secured first, and she cautioned against doing the same thing again.

"That's why I have a simple request for the president and Congress: Secure our border first. Demonstrate that you take seriously the safety concerns of Americans living in the border region. With that completed, we can pursue -- together -- ways to fix our nation's broader immigration system in a fashion that is effective, practical and humane," Brewer said.

On Thursday, just two days after the election, Boehner, a Republican from Ohio, opened the door on immigration reform. He said an overhaul of the nation's immigration system is overdue and he is confident that Obama and Republicans can find common ground on a comprehensive approach to immigration reform.

On Friday, Boehner modified his position, saying he favors a "step by step" approach rather than a comprehensive overhaul.

"I'm not talking about a 3,000-page bill," Boehner said. "What I'm talking about is a common-sense, step-by-step approach to secure our borders, allow us to enforce the laws and fix a broken immigration system."

Flake tweeted, "Speaker Boehner talking live about immigration reform. Great news. Long overdue."

Earlier in the day, McCain tweeted, "I agree with the calls for comprehensive immigration reform."

"It's obvious that we'll have to review the whole issue of the Hispanic voter and see what steps we need to take to regain that vote," McCain told The Arizona Republic. "It's very important because that demographic is growing here in Arizona and across the country. In some of the states like Colorado and Nevada, especially those, and others the Hispanic vote was pivotal. We'll have to review the issue of immigration reform."

The comments that generated the most excitement from supporters of immigration reform, however, came from Hannity and Krauthammer.

Hannity said on his radio program that Republicans need to appeal to a wide range of demographic groups after Romney and his running mate, Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, were "crushed" by the Hispanic vote in Tuesday's election.

Acknowledging that his position had "evolved" since the election, Hannity said he now favors a combination of border security and legalizing undocumented immigrants who are not criminals.

"We've got to get rid of the immigration issue altogether. It's simple for me to fix it. I think you control the border first, you create a pathway for those people who are here, you don't say you've got to go home," Hannity said. "If some people have criminal records, you can send them home, but if people are here law abiding, participating for years, their kids are born here -- it's first secure the border, pathway to citizenship, done."

Meanwhile, Krauthammer said on Fox News that in order to win future support from Latinos, Republicans need to make a "bold change in policy" that includes "amnesty with enforcement."

Noorani of the National Immigration Forum said the comments by Hannity and Krauthammer could sway House Republicans, many of whom were vehemently opposed to any kind of reform that included a legalization program.

"In the past, your conservative House Republicans would look to Fox News for guidance on immigration, and Fox News, Sean Hannity, Krauthammer, etc., would be saying, 'No amnesty,' " Noorani said.

"Now, when you have movement conservatives laying the groundwork and creating the political space for House Republicans to say this is a conservative solution to the immigration problem, that is fundamentally different."

Molera, the GOP political consultant, predicted any attempt to pass a legalization program for illegal immigrants in the future will face a backlash from some conservatives who remain opposed to amnesty no matter what.

"There will be a backlash, I have no doubt," Molera said. "I think there are extreme conservative groups that ... are going to put a lot of pressure on Republicans," Molera said.

But that backlash could be blunted by the growing political power of Latinos at the polls and Republicans' realization that "they need to be standing for something instead of just talking about how they are going to be against comprehensive immigration reform."

Republic reporter Dan Nowicki and the Associated Press contributed to this article.

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