The Republican dilemma

The reform puts legislators between the past and the future. Immigration reform has caused a dilemma for the Republican Party. Its members must now choose between the past and the future—between satisfying their most conservative and loudest base or betting on a more inclusive political organization in a nation with increasing ethnic and racial diversity.

Analyzing the results of the past presidential election led national GOP leaders to the conclusion that they must recover the Hispanic vote—at least to the level of support obtained by George W. Bush. And according to this analysis, immigration reform is the door to the Latino electorate.

This strategy has been vanishing as the reform gets to the House of Representatives, to be replaced with the strategy of focusing on the white vote. According to this way of thinking, the GOP’s problem in the latest election was not getting more white votes for Romney in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Also, this goal is simpler than hypothetically conquering the Hispanic vote.

There are also those who believe that the millions of immigrants and potential citizens will be Democrats; therefore, the reform only helps the opposition. What this does not take into account is that beneficiaries could only vote after 13 more years. By then, Republicans could possibly have expanded their message. Otherwise, their problems will be bigger than simply the Latino vote.

On the other hand, the majority of Republican representatives come from safe districts where their re-election is not threatened. That is an incentive to ignore the call to help recover the Latino vote.

The choice is between seeing immigration reform with a short-term vision—trapped in the past—or looking beyond the present, setting aside stereotypes, recognizing the broad economic benefits of legalization and doing the best for the future of the United States and the Republican Party.

ImpreMedia/La Opinion