Sensing “Long-Term Damage,” Smart Republicans Distance Themselves from Arizona Bill

America's Voice Blog

Posted 04/29/10 at 02:28pm

The Arizona GOP may not mind that it's hurtling off a demographic cliff and dooming itself to permanent minority-party status, but some prominent Republicans are taking a stand against Arizona's newly-passed law criminalizing undocumented immigrants.

During a television interview Tuesday, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell said he was "concerned" about people being forced to carry documentation at all times under the law. As quoted in the Washington Post, McDonnell said:

"I'm concerned about the whole idea of carrying papers and always having to be able to prove your citizenship. That brings up some shades of some other regimes that weren't necessarily helpful to democracy."

Florida Senate candidate Marco Rubio released a statement that included some typical anti-immigrant posturing, but pointed out that the Arizona law contradicts Republicans' supposed preference for "small government." As Rubio wrote in the statement (reprinted by the St. Petersburg Times):

"I think aspects of the law, especially that dealing with ‘reasonable suspicion,’ are going to put our law enforcement officers in an incredibly difficult position. It could also unreasonably single out people who are here legally, including many American citizens."

Rubio's fellow Florida Republican, former Governor Jeb Bush, went one step further. Bush told Politico he thinks immigration is a federal responsibility, and the Arizona law isn't "the proper approach":

"I think it creates unintended consequences...It's difficult for me to imagine how you're going to enforce this law. It places a significant burden on local law enforcement and you have civil liberties issues that are significant as well."

Most significantly, Politico reports that Bush believes "the new law underscores the necessity" of comprehensive immigration reform.

Republicans who reject anti-immigrant demagoguery may be bucking party rhetoric to act on principle, but they're also thinking about what's good for the GOP long-term. As we've pointed out before, it'll be hard for Republicans to win elections if they don't have a shot at the rapidly-growing Latino vote. Washington Post blogger David Weigel notes:

"There's a divide, I'm finding, between Republicans who are ready to accept Rasmussen poll results as validation that the bill is a winner for them, and Republicans who see long-term damage in Arizona."

That's the choice Republicans face in a nutshell. Welcome Latinos now by standing up for humane immigration policy and against racial profiling, or stir up anti-immigrant, anti-Latino sentiment for political points now -- and pay for it in political power for a long time.

BREAKING: Add one more to that list. According to The Hill, Congressman Connie Mack (R-FL) calls the bill "reminiscent" of Nazi Germany, and says:

"This is not the America I grew up in and believe in, and it’s not the America I want my children to grow up in."