Immigration reform: Will it win Republicans any new Hispanic votes?

Many on the left and right argue that even if Republicans go along with a comprehensive immigration reform bill, they're still unlikely to win much in the way of Hispanic support.

By Liz Marlantes, Correspondent / January 30, 2013

Federico Paseiro (c.), his mother Patricia Sosa (r.), both illegal immigrants of Argentina, and his girlfriend Daysis Moraga, an immigration activist, hold signs in front of the Freedom Tower in downtown Miami, Monday. As lawmakers move forward in crafting an immigration reform bill, one widespread assumption has been that demographic political pressures are giving this effort a greater chance of passage than any in recent years.

Alan Diaz/AP

In Pictures: Which side of the fence are you on? The US immigration debate

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As lawmakers move forward in crafting an immigration reform bill, one widespread assumption has been that demographic political pressures – specifically, the Republican Party's need to win over more Latino voters, or risk becoming a permanent minority – are giving this effort a greater chance of passage than any in recent years.

Liz Marlantes

Correspondent

Liz Marlantes covers politics for the Monitor and is a regular contributor to the Monitor's political blog, DC Decoder.

In Pictures: Which side of the fence are you on? The US immigration debate

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Arizona Sen. John McCain (R) minced no words on Monday when unveiling the broad outlines agreed to by a bipartisan group of eight senators: "The Republican Party is losing the support of our Hispanic citizens," he said. "And we realize this is an issue in which we are in agreement with our Hispanic citizens."

But increasingly, many others are arguing that fixing the GOP's so-called "Hispanic problem" won't be nearly that simple – and that Republicans shouldn't go along with immigration reform purely in an effort to win more votes, since that alone is unlikely to convert many Latinos to the Republican Party. Tellingly, one GOP Senate aide spelled out this political calculus for The National Review: "Don’t walk the plank on immigration because Romney only got 29 percent of the Hispanic vote, and sell out on deeply held conservatives principles to bump that up to 33 percent."

According to this line of analysis, even if a comprehensive immigration bill passes, Hispanics are likely to continue to align themselves politically with Democrats because of greater ideological compatibility on a whole range of issues – the biggest of which is a more liberal vision of government that includes support for more services.

Writing in The Washington Post this week, Jamelle Bouie argued: "Latinos are more liberal than the median voter. According to the most recent Pew poll on these questions (released last year), 75 percent of Hispanics say they support bigger government with more services, compared to 41 percent of the general population."