“In (swing states) Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico and Florida, the margin of defeat was the difference in the Hispanic vote between 2004 and 2008,” McCain said. “We Republicans . . . have got to recruit and elect Hispanics to office. And we need to correct the impression that many Hispanic citizens have, and that is that we don’t like Hispanics.”
Jon Kyl also talks about moving forward on immigration reform in this article…
My cousin (who, like me is anglo-American all the way back to Plymouth Rock) is married to a man from central America. He is a legal alien but I’m pretty sure he has relatives who are undocumented. My cousin’s children are American citizens, and her oldest registered and voted this year (meanwhile her second cousins include some American citizens and some who are not.)
What a lot of folks who keep saying they are attacking “illegal immigrants only” fail to understand is that there are not two seperate groups of people– only legal and only illegal immigrants. In fact the whole attack is an attack on extended family, in many cases of American citizens– primarily but not always limited to, Hispanics (as in my case.)
So as long as the GOP continues to attack “illegal immigrants” they will lose votes from a lot of other voters, who happen to know/be related to/be the offspring or married or unmarried partner of undocumented aliens. Extended family is especially important in the Hispanic community, and once you’ve attacked a person’s family then it’s safe to say that they quit listening to anything else you are saying.
There are a lot of hispanics that are not part of the criminal constituency that includes illegal aliens. They, like a lot of other citizens have compassion for families effected by the mess over the quasi enforcement of immigration law and understand that these laws protect our society. It is a mistake to court criminals and their associates to win their votes. We need to close the door and clean up our house.