GOP Candidates Betray the Spirit of Reagan on Immigration

"In the past two decades, spending on border enforcement has skyrocketed more than six-fold, and personnel at the border five-fold. Yet the mantra of many Republicans has been to throw more money at the problem while rejecting any fundamental reform of the immigration system itself.  The predominant GOP view on immigration is not only bad policy but also bad politics. Hispanics are now the largest minority group and the fastest-growing voting bloc. Ronald Reagan understood, as did George W. Bush, that millions of Hispanics are friendly to the Republican message of entrepreneurship, opportunity, and family values. The demeaning rhetoric about unauthorized immigrant workers that emanates from the right is interpreted by many Hispanic citizens as a putdown of their culture. Republicans thus risk alienating potential Hispanic supporters, as well as more moderate non-Hispanic voters. With the long-term demographic changes already in motion, an anti-immigration Republican party will find it more and more difficult to win elections.  Spending billions more each year to enforce a fundamentally unenforceable law is not the conservative answer to illegal immigration. Immigration law needs to be changed in a way that better serves our economic needs, protects our security, and affirms our best values as a nation." - Daniel Griswold, Jan. 3, 2012.