Following the Senate's passage of the immigration reform bill, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R - Fla., has taken to the airwaves to urge the House of Representatives to push the bill through after the Congressional recess of August, stating that if they don't, President Barack Obama may just find a way to issue the law by executive order.
Officially known as the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act, the bill offers a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants in the United States.
"I believe that this president will be tempted, if nothing happens in Congress, he will be tempted to issue an executive order like he did for the DREAM Act kids a year ago, where he basically legalizes 11 million people by the sign of a pen," Rubio told a radio host in Tallahassee, Florida. "A year from now we could find ourselves with all 11 million people here legally under an executive order from the president."
Immigration reform is a hot-button issue for Republicans, with some worried that granting a pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumened immigrants is essentially a free gift to the Democratic electorate. Hispanics, in particular, traditionally vote more for Democrats, and last year President Obama carried the Hispanic electorate by a whopping 44 percent margin--71 percent for President Obama to the 27 percent that Republican challenger Mitt Romney received, according to the Pew Research Hispanic Trends Project.
Of course, some of the issues surrounding Hispanic voting could be chicken vs. egg. At least, that's what Reince Priebus, Chairman of the Republican National Party asserted in March after a months-long assessment of what went wrong in the 2012 election when - despite a sluggish economy - the Republican party failed to recapture the Senate and lost all the same states in the Presidential election as it had from four years prior, save for North Carolina and Indiana.
"The way we communicate our principles isn't resonating widely enough," Priebus said then. "Focus groups described our party as 'narrow-minded,' 'out of touch,' and 'stuffy old men.'" Amongst the solutions? More support for immigration reform.
In 2012, Latinos made up 10 percent of the national electorate. That's up from nine percent in 2008, and eight percent in 2004. For the Republicans, a failure to close that 44 percent gap amongst the voters could quickly become a failure to remain relevant as a national party.
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