UK: Republican candidates risk alienating Latino voters

The Guardian

'Inexcusable' language on immigration alienating Latino voters, Republicans told

Florida senator Marco Rubio and former governor Jeb Bush warn party's frontrunners not to use 'harsh and intolerable' language
By Conal Urquhart and agencies

Senior Republicans including the brother of the former president George Bush have warned the party to avoid using "harsh, intolerable and inexcusable" language about illegal immigration or risk alienating Latino voters.

The Florida senator, Marco Rubio, and the state's former governor Jeb Bush made their appeal before Tuesday's primary, being contested by Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney.

The Republican frontrunners clashed over illegal immigration in a debate earlier this week. The issue is emotive in Florida, which has the third largest Latino population in America.

Latinos make up 13% of Florida's 11.2 million registered voters, according to data from the Florida Division of Elections, compiled by the Pew Hispanic Center.

"We must admit there are those among us that have used rhetoric that is harsh and intolerable and inexcusable," Rubio said in a speech at the Hispanic Leadership Network in Miami on Friday.

"And we must admit, myself included, that sometimes we've been too slow to condemn that language for what it is."

Both Gingrich and Romney have courted the Latino community in Florida and aired commercials in Spanish, but many Floridian voters are upset by hardline measures proposed by Republicans to curb immigration in other states such as Arizona and Texas.

The US is home to an estimated 14 million illegal immigrants, but many US citizens have been "illegal" at some point in their lives.

Some Republican leaders have introduced legislation to prevent the provision of services to illegal immigrants, the majority of whom are Hispanic.

Bush also urged Republicans to temper their comments. "Hispanic people hear these debates and I think you turn them off. It's not a good thing," he said.

Romney and Gingrich exchanged remarks about illegal immigration during their televised debate in Jacksonville on Thursday. The exchanges centred on an ad Gingrich put out which described Romney as "anti-immigrant".

Gingrich withdrew the ad on Wednesday after leading Latino Republican politicians described it as offensive, but stood by it in the debate.

Romney called on Gingrich to apologise, describing the ad as "inexcusable and inflammatory and inappropriate" – unusual language for the normally buttoned-up candidate. He said it was "simply the kind of over-the-top rhetoric that has characterised American politics for too long".

Gingrich, who has proposed a humane approach to illegal immigrants, stood his ground, insisting Romney was the most anti-immigrant of the four candidates fighting for the Republican nomination.

Nearly one-third of eligible Hispanic voters in Florida are of Cuban descent, while 28% are of Puerto Rican origin. Mexican Americans, who account for nearly 60% of Hispanic eligible voters nationwide, represent 9% of Florida voters.

In 2008, Barack Obama won more than half of Florida's Hispanic vote, although polls suggest Hispanic voters have become disillusioned with the president.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/28/senior-republicans-latino-voters-immigration