Pro-“self-deportation” Romney wins Florida Hispanic vote by 2-1 margin

Roy Beck of NumbersUSA sends out this e-mail:

NEWS FLASH—Offered a stark choice on the illegal immigration issue, Florida Latino Republicans today broke nearly 2-1 for the candidate with the firmest opposition to amnesty and the strongest support for enforcement.

Mitt Romney’s margin of victory among Latinos was nearly double his margin of victory among Whites.

For those of you who supported other candidates, you have to at least feel some real satisfaction that on the issue of immigration, Mitt Romney the winner was painted as by-far the strongest opponent of amnesty. You may have preferred another candidate—including the President—for other reasons, but most Florida voters went to the polls with the idea that Romney was indeed the toughest on immigration.

Pro-self-deportation Romney won the overall vote by 46% to 32%.

But pro-self-deportaton Romney won the Latino vote by 54% to 29%.

It was a strong rebuke of the majority of media commentators who insist that Latino-Americans can only be won by promising rewards for lawbreaking. It added a sign of much greater dignity in the rule of law for the Latino population than most in the media are willing to give it.

(Read my full analysis blog and join the discussion here. )

Nobody can say that Floridians—both Latino and non-Latino—weren’t provided a clear choice on the immigration issue. Immigration may not have been a top issue for most of the voters but it was one of the most publicized parts of the debates and contest.

- Newt Gingrich campaigned hard among Latino voters with his continuing call for legalization and work permits for many illegal aliens and his pounding criticism of his opponent as “anti-immigrant” for opposing legalization.

- Mitt Romney in two debates continued his campaign-long opposition to long-term work permits and legalization of illegal aliens and created a national media sensation by talking about “self-deportation” as the top goal for the illegal population.

WINNING MARGIN

Whites—Anti-legalization Romney won by 13 percentage points

Latinos—Anti-legalization Romney won by 25 percentage points

The results don’t prove that Romney’s anti-amnesty stance helped him with Latinos. But the results DO prove that a candidate can stand for the rule of law and for preferring unemployed American workers over illegal aliens and still win Latino support.

And that is a wonderful victory of the image of Latino-Americans and for all of us in our battle to say that unemployed Americans should have priority over illegal aliens for U.S. jobs.

Tonight’s victor, Romney, put the issue in exactly those terms in the Jacksonville debate last Thursday night. Romney said: “You know, our problem is not 11 million grandmothers. Our problem is (APPLAUSE) . .

. Our problem is 11 million people getting jobs that many Americans (and) legal immigrants would like to have.”

Although that got one of the most enthusiastic rounds of applause of the debate, nearly all of the news media refused to offer that quote to the public. I believe that is because most reporters and editors in the news media refuse to believe it is possible that Americans and legal immigrants already here would take the construction, service and manufacturing jobs currently held by illegal aliens.

EXIT POLL’S IMMIGRATION CHOICES SHOW CONTINUING LACK OF UNDERSTANDING

You’ll never believe how exit pollsters asked their immigration question.

Read about it here.

For the most part, most in the news media still refuse to treat our solution of attrition through enforcement (self-deportation) as an option at all.

The obstinancy of the news media to include this option in opinion polls over the last decade has seriously distorted the public’s understanding of the options available to it on illegal immigration.

And it reminds us of just how incredibly important it is that candidates Romney and Santorum are using their national soapboxes to fight for the concept.

[end of Beck e-mail]

Clark Coleman, who forwarded the e-mail, writes:

My prediction is that mere facts will not change the RINO/neocon perspective on this issue. They will continue to parrot the conventional wisdom about appealing to Hispanic voters via pandering to illegal aliens, which is actually a big turn-off to Hispanic citizens. One of the major characteristics of the ideologue is to hold beliefs that are immune to empirical feedback. Russell Kirk pointed out that, in this sense, conservatism is not an ideology. The presence of large numbers of ideologues among neocons and the “mainstream” conservatives is a sure sign that they are not conservative.

LA replies:

However, this was in Florida, where many of the Hispanics are Cubans and came here originally as refugees, not as immigrants or as illegal aliens. The issue of illegal aliens is not as salient in Florida as in other states.

At the same time it is undoubtedly the case that the liberal media falsely make it appear that a candidate must be pro-illegal alien in order to win Hispanics’ support.


Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 01, 2012 02:13 PM | Send
    

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