Republican extremism on immigration could cost them at election time, especially in states with significant Latino populations, recent polling data appears to confirm.
According to pollster Fernand Amandi, Latino voters are reacting strongly against Republican immigration policies that emphasize mass deportation, racial profiling of Latinos, or other punitive measures such as harassment by police or withholding medical care to immigrants.
On a conference call with reporters this week, Amandi said, "As long as the Republican Party’s rhetoric and policies continue to be as extreme and harsh as they have been, you’ll see more and more Latinos leave the GOP not just in 2012, but for a lifetime.”
"Latinos are poised to represent more than 10 million voters in 2012 and will no doubt play a major role in the upcoming Presidential election," he told reporters.
Amandi's remarks came as a reaction to new media reports that show Republican members of Congress are pushing for mass deportation of millions of Latino immigrants.
In Arizona, Republican Gov. Jan Brewer also recently filed a countersuit against federal authorities who successfully blocked a racial profiling law which would target Latinos in her state. Brewer signed the controversial bill into law last year, prompting a national uproar over the law's requirement that police demand the papers of any Latino person suspected of being an immigrant.
Racist origins and affiliations
Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, tied much of the Republican Party's anti-immigrant policies to three groups with innocuous sounding names that his organization labels hate groups: the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the Center for Immigration Studies and NumbersUSA
Each of these groups originated with the goal of maintaining a "European American majority" in order to preserve what they see as a "European American society," Potok said.
"At the end of the day that is what we're talking about here," he added. "They're interested in protecting a European American majority, meaning white people."
He said that current leaders of FAIR have described past immigration reform laws that ended racial quotas on immigration as a retaliation against "Anglo-Saxon dominance."
"That's what is at the heart of the organizations we're talking about," he stated.
John Tanton, the founder of each of these groups, has been exposed as having corresponded in friendly ways with Holocaust deniers, KKK organizations and leaders, as well as leaders of the "white nationalist world," Potok continued. Tanton's organization has accepted more than $1 million from the Pioneer Fund, which advocated eugenics activities designed to increase the genetic stock of the original white colonists.
And if you think the connections between these organizations and the Republican Party are only tenuous, Potok would ask you to consider Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Calif., newly elected member of the GOP-controlled House and head of his party's Congressional Immigration Caucus. That caucus, despite its bland name, actually advocates mass deportation, striking birthright citizenship from the Constitution, and other punitive measures aimed mainly at Latino immigrants.
Bilbray is a former lawyer for FAIR.
Another lawyer by the name of Kris Kobach, who is tied to FAIR, co-authored laws like Arizona's "papers please" law. Kobach allied with Arizona State Sen. Russell Pearce (Republican), who has been tied to neo-Nazi organizations, to win passage of that law. (See pictures of Pearce with white supremacist leaders here.)
Potok suggested that this network of anti-immigration activists, white supremacists, and Republican Party leaders has taken over reasoned debate of the issue. “They want local, state and federal measures that expel immigrants here and stop immigrants from coming in the future. Their radicalism causes huge upheaval in local communities that take their recommendations to heart, and are exacerbating racial tensions across the country," he said.
Not taking it lying down
While much of the corporate English-language media has ignored the deep roots the white supremacist movement has in the Republican Party, Latino voters aren't taking the violent rhetoric against their community lying down.
Spanish-language media have followed Republican Party immigration efforts closely. According to Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, an immigration advocacy organization, America's Spanish-speaking community is deeply concerned about the Republican Party's "radical" anti-Latino, anti-immigrant agenda.
He further indicated that polling suggests a Republican nominee for president will need to win 40 percent of the Latino vote in states like Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, and Florida, but by pushing strong anti-immigrant policies, "it's going to be very hard to do so."
"If the Republicans do indeed choose to pursue this mass deportation strategy," added Amandi, "the only conclusion one can draw politically is that it is a strategy of mass insanity and mass destruction to the short and long-term prospects of the GOP."
Exit polling after this past election cycle found that for Latino voters, immigration is among their top concerns, he pointed out. "Sixty percent of Hispanics said it was one of the most if not the most important reason they voted." Only the economy is higher on the list of concerns for most Latino voters.
Amandi also countered claims that Latino voters aren't impacted by the immigration debate because by definition they have no "legal status problem." More than three in five Latino voters tell pollsters they know undocumented immigrants personally and that motivates their deep interest in this issue.
"These kinds of policies have a direct consequence in the lives of many Latino voters," Amandi explained.
In addition, Republican Party anti-immigrant policies appear to be anti-Latino policies, and that "adds to feelings of discrimination Latino voters are sensing around the country," he said.
"For the foreseeable future, this policy continues to be a destructive one for the Republicans," Amandi said. "And with the specter of 2012 coming up, it seems they are writing off the Latino vote in pursuing these types of policies."
Democrats need to respond with meaningful immigration reform measures and proposals if they want to benefit electorally from both the growth of the Latino electorate and its increasing dissatisfaction with the Republican Party, he concluded.
Photo by JacobRuff, cc by 2.0, Flickr
