While many predicted the Republican nomination race would be over by now, we’ve had three winners in three contests (and the Florida race, which may be over by the time you read this, is neck and neck). And despite polling showing Americans rank immigration pretty low on the list of issues of concern, immigration policy has been front and center in the Republican fight.

Newt Gingrich is considered generally to be more conservative on most issues, but on immigration issues, he’s probably the most progressive of the field. He has spoken out in favor of having a more flexible enforcement policy that creates some pathways to legalization for limited populations and a much more robust legal immigration system designed to attract highly skilled immigrants.

Mitt Romney has a strongly pro-immigrant view when it comes to skilled workers and has gone so far as to endorse the Thomas Friedman proposal to “staple” a green card to the diploma of students pursuing advance degrees in the US. But he has drawn a great deal of attention for being to the extreme right on questions of illegal immigration. He has confirmed he would veto the DREAM Act if passed by Congress. He recently endorsed an attrition strategy on enforcement (calling it “self-deportation”) that aims to make life so miserable for illegally present immigrants that they would voluntarily leave the US rather than having to be picked up and forcibly deported. And he touted the endorsement of the darling of the extreme anti-immigration movement, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. Kobach is the author of the infamous Arizona and Alabama immigration laws.

Gingrich’s record on immigration over the last twenty years has consistently been moderate so it was refreshing to see him resist the temptation to run to the right on this issue. Perhaps he was also shrewd knowing that Republican voters generally are not engaged on the topic and are more likely to accept different views on this issue than other issues that are of greater concern. In a general election, he’ll be counting on doing at least as well as part Republican nominees have done with Latino voters.

Romney, however, shifted from a relatively moderate position to this much tougher line. He has gotten the endorsement of Florida Senator Marco Rubio, a leading Latino politician, but on immigration issues, Rubio’s views have been to the right of virtually the entire Latino political establishment, including several prominent Latino Republicans like Ileana Ros-Lehtinen from Miami. Ros-Lehtinen endorsed Romney earlier in the campaign, but it was before Romney got the Kobach endorsement.

Romney’s most strident anti-immigration statements and the Kobach endorsement came in the lead up to the South Carolina primary. Obviously, the strategy was an utter failure and it certainly has made the situation tougher for Romney in Florida and, no doubt, in the general election. The President will have plenty to work with when it comes to using Romney’s own words to remind Latino voters that the Republican is no friend of their community. Of course, Romney’s major critics complain that he is a flip-flopper so perhaps he will revert back to more moderate views in a general campaign. Time will tell. 

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Regards,

Greg Siskind