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GOP Post-Mortem Gets it Right: Latino Problems More a Matter of Policy than Tone

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Frank Sharry: “Republican Party has Dealt a Sharp Rebuke to the ‘Self-Deportation’ Crowd” 

A new Republican National Committee (RNC) analysis of the Party’s shortcomings makes clear that the GOP’s recent embrace of hardline anti-immigrant policies is at the heart of their problems with Latino voters.

The new RNC analysis states, “We must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform,” and notes that “If Hispanic Americans perceive that a GOP nominee or candidate does not want them in the United States (i.e. self-deportation), they will not pay attention to our next sentence.  It does not matter what we say about education, jobs or the economy; if Hispanics think we do not want them here, they will close their ears to our policies.”

The following is a statement from Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice Education Fund:

“We aren’t in the habit of saluting the GOP on immigration, but this report gets it right.  With Latino voters, the issue been both tone and policyIf you tell people you don’t like them and back it up with policies that scream we don’t want your kind of people here, it’s hard to win their votes.  By singling out the need for Republicans to get behind comprehensive immigration reform and calling out ‘self-deportation’ by name, the Republican Party has dealt a sharp rebuke to the self-deportation crowd. If the GOP is to avoid driving off the demographic cliff, it needs to leave its anti-immigrant voices behind and recognize that the ‘comprehensive immigration reform’ they champion must include a clear and direct road to earned citizenship.”

As the New York Times noted on Sunday, there is “broad support in the Senate for a so-called path to citizenship” and a bi-partisan group in the House is close to an accord on a sensible immigration reform bill of their own.

America’s Voice Education Fund — Harnessing the power of American voices and American values to win common sense immigration reform

www.americasvoiceonline.org

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