Latinos and Immigrants

Abstract

It has become common over the last year to hear pundits declare that Republicans, by scuttling immigration reform with an enforcement-only mantra and turning vicious and nativistic during the recent election campaigns, have won the battle (against liberalizing the immigration system) but are poised to lose the war (for the Latino vote). Short-term appeasement of a base disgruntled with high levels of immigration, particularly from south of the border, is increasingly alienating Latinos—the electoral sleeping giant whose support both parties need to remain relevant in American politics. Commentators and Democrats find delicious irony in the right wing’s quick unraveling, through immigration demagoguery, of Karl Rove’s years-long strategy to entrench Republican power by incorporating a majority of Latinos into the GOP fold.