War opens inside Republican Party over immigration

  By SteveAustin on Sat Nov 10, 2012

Exit polls revealed that Republicans lost the minority vote. Losing African Americans was no surprise and Republicans have no hopes nor plans nor policy changes other than voter suppression to deal with that demographic.

Regarding Hispanics however, Republican political and thought leaders are hopeful that making some changes can attract more Hispanic votes. This will be more difficult for them than many imagine ...

Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch, who criticized Romney throughout the campaign for his hard right tack on immigration, tweeted that the U.S. “must sweeping, generous immigration reform.”

Hannity said on his radio show that he’s “evolved” on the issue and now supports a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff (R), a pro-amnesty Republican, decried his fellow Republicans’ decision to “pander to what they thought was the base of the party — the loud, shrill anti-immigration voices out there.”

“In order to move forward as a party and a nation on this critical issue we need to reject the extreme right-wing partisan rantings of the Joe Arpaios and Kris Kobachs who do not represent the majority of the Republican Party,” he said.

Arpaio is an anti-immigration Arizona sheriff, while Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) authored the controversial Arizona immigration law, portions of which were struck down by the Supreme Court.

But the border hawks aren’t going anywhere — and predicted a war within the party if Boehner and other Republicans seek to push forward on a comprehensive reform plan.

“They appear to be making a pure political calculation regardless of principle and policy because they think it'll garner votes,” Kobach told The Hill. “I think individuals like Krauthammer and Boehner may have their thoughts they've developed from their high perches but members of Congress are in touch with voters and citizens of America are very anti-amnesty… we have 20 million people unemployed and Republican leaders and now saying it's time for amnesty? That's absurd.”

“I think pandering is the worst way to respond, it'd be a huge mistake and amnesty is a terrible decision, a terrible bill,” said Bay Buchanan, another Romney surrogate and the sister of former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan, a longtime opponent of amnesty.

“If leadership attempts to move in this direction there will be an internal battle on this, it'll be very vocal and it'll be very national,” she said.

The Hill

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