Clinton Makes GOP Task of Courting Hispanics Harder

USAToday

By Alan Gomez

May 6, 2015

Clinton makes GOP task of courting Hispanics harder 

A full 19 months before the 2016 presidential election, both parties have established starting positions on immigration that are more extreme than in previous elections.

On Tuesday, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton said she would shield from deportation a group of undocumented immigrants that even President Obama's lawyers have deemed beyond their legal limit to protect. That follows a month when Republicans not only voiced their collective opposition to any "amnesty" for undocumented immigrants, but started talking about restricting legal immigration as well.

And we're not even in primary season yet.

Let's start with the Democrats.

In 2012, Obama protected from deportation DREAMers, children illegally brought to the country as minors by their parents. And while Obama moved to protect even more undocumented immigrants last year, parents of DREAMers were not included because the White House says it lacks the legal authority to do so.

Now, Clinton says she not only wants to protect that group from deportation but allow them to receive "full and equal citizenship."

The announcement stunned even the most ardent immigration advocates. Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, said Clinton had just "bear-hugged" the immigrant community. Following an election in which Obama received 71% of the Hispanic vote, Clinton is clearly trying to match or exceed that share in 2016.

On the other side of the race, Republicans seem to be taking the right steps to draw in more Hispanic voters.

The first confirmed candidate in the race was Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, whose father immigrated from Cuba. Then came Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who speaks glowingly about his parents' immigrant tale from Cuba. Former Florida governor Jeb Bush jokingly is called the first Hispanic governor of the state due to his popularity among Hispanics, fluency in Spanish and a Mexican wife.

Yet week by week, the GOP is straying further from a message that would actually lure Hispanics.

During a speech last month before the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, Bush boasted about his "bicultural and bilingual" children. But he stopped short of advocating a full pathway to citizenship. Instead, he said undocumented immigrants should be able to receive an "earned legal status," which Hispanics view as little more than second-class citizenship.

Rubio was briefly a champion of the Hispanic community when he co-sponsored a Senate bill in 2013 that granted a pathway to citizenship. But faced with criticism from the more conservative GOP corners, Rubio ran from the bill so quickly he skipped the celebratory press conference after the Senate passed the measure.

Cruz has long been criticized by Hispanics for his harsh immigration policies. He proposes tripling the Border Patrol, only wants to admit immigrants with specialized skills and decries "amnesty" for the nation's 11 million undocumented immigrants.

Then there's Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. During interviews on conservative outlets last month, Walker said he wants to reduce the number of legal immigrants who enter the country each year because they take jobs away from American workers and depress their wages.

That claim is in dispute. Conservatives cite research defending the position, while immigration advocates point to other studies that show wages increase when entrepreneurial immigrants enter the country and create jobs.

What's more important is the political fallout of Republicans moving in this direction. The Hispanic electorate has as much varied opinion as any other voting bloc, but I can't picture too many of them embracing this idea.

Why would they? Walker is basically telling immigrants that fewer of their friends and colleagues back home should be able to enter the U.S. on a work visa, and that fewer of their relatives should be able to enter on a family visa.

That strategy plays well when you're a Republican running for office in a conservative state or congressional district, or trying to win the GOP presidential nomination. And it will definitely please Americans who feel they can't find a job or have been forced out of one by lower-paid immigrants.

But for a party that acknowledges it needs to improve on the 27% of the Hispanic vote Mitt Romney garnered in 2012 — and now faces Clinton's immigrant-friendly stance — I don't see how that strategy works in a general election.

For more information, go to:  www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com