GOP Should Quit Stirring the Anti-Immigrant Pot

The GOP's Hispanic voter problem has the potential to cost it the presidential election next November -- but the likelihood is that it won't. This has less to do with the party's standing with Hispanic voters, which continues to be low, than it does with President Obama's failures to revive the economy. Nonetheless, the party is concerned enough that some Republican leaders are suggesting the key to winning the Hispanic vote is to put Florida Sen. Marco Rubio on the ticket, no matter who the presidential nominee turns out to be. That's the wrong solution.

First, let me make clear that I am a huge fan of Rubio's -- but not because he's Hispanic. If his name were Mark Ruby and he had the same record and positions, I'd be every bit as enthusiastic. Similarly, if he had all the same personal attributes -- intelligence, leadership, and charisma -- but was an unabashed liberal or wishy-washy moderate, I wouldn't think of supporting him. I don't pick my candidates by skin color or ancestry. And neither do most Americans.

The key to winning more Hispanic votes is really pretty simple for the GOP: Stop pretending that illegal immigration is a top issue for most voters. It isn't. We've made enormous progress in slowing illegal immigration and controlling the border -- and it shows. As columnist Michael Medved has recently pointed out, every poll over the last year demonstrates that only 2 or 3 percent of voters consider the issue important enough to list among their top priorities.

Illegal immigration is now at about the same level as it was in 1972 -- the lowest level in decades. Nearly a million fewer illegal immigrants live in the U.S. today than in 2007, partly because of the downturn in the economy. Even more might have left, as they did during the Great Depression, if we hadn't made it more difficult to return when the economy improves.

One of the great ironies of the border fence is that it keeps many illegal immigrants who might otherwise return to their home countries to wait out the economic downturn from doing so, because it would be harder to return than it was in the past. And whatever else you can say about Obama, his administration, surprisingly, has deported more illegal immigrants than any in recent history.

Instead of trying to outdo one another on who can be the most anti-illegal-immigrant candidate, the GOP presidential contenders ought to just drop the issue. Mitt Romney looks ridiculous when he attacks Rick Perry for supporting in-state tuition for illegal immigrants who came as children and have lived most, if not all, of their lives in Texas (and therefore paid the same sales and real estate taxes that finance higher education in the state as other Texans).