Subject: USA Today outlines just how awful the Republican presidential hopefuls are on immigration
From: DNC Press <[email-masked]>
To: DNC Press <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 8 May 2015 15:49:11 +0000

From USA Today's Alan Gomez<http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/05/06/voices-gomez-clinton-republicans-immigration/26641519/>:

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