How Immigration Reform Became Respectable

By Peter Hakim
Latin Pulse, November 9, 2012

Listen to Hakim's segment in Latin Pulse here.

Access this week's full Latin Pulse podcast also covering the Alan Gross case and Honduran primaries here.

In an otherwise skillfully run campaign, Mitt Romney and his advisers somehow failed to take note of the country’s demographic transformation in recent years. It was an error that may have cost them the election. Romney and other Republican candidates not only ignored Latinos, but at times actively offended them by the tone and substance of their views on immigration. Romney himself sounded particularly insensitive, even callous, when he suggested that undocumented immigrants “deport themselves” – a terrible affront to Latinos and other immigrants who consider the US their home, and more insulting still to the many that have known no other.

Despite the record numbers of undocumented immigrants deported in the past four years, Obama made clear his support for broad reform of US immigration policies. As election day approached, he cemented his support among Latinos by announcing that most individuals brought to the US as juveniles would be allowed to remain in the US, at least temporarily. And he and his campaign team spared no effort to get the Latinos, who now account for one out of ten US voters, to the polls. The president ended up with upwards of 72 percent of their vote, which was crucial in a half-a-dozen or so states, including New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado, Florida, Virginia, and perhaps even Ohio.

The decisive impact of the Latino vote on the election results overnight focused unprecedented attention on immigration policy. For the first time in several decades, both Republicans and Democrats appear motivated to tackle a complex set of issues that have long been among the most divisive in American politics.

President Obama and the Democratic Party are well aware that they would not have had a second term in the White House without the massive support and unprecedented turnout of Latino voters. And the fact that their numbers are growing rapidly and will be substantially larger in subsequent elections has not escaped either political party.  Even those Republicans who have relentlessly resisted immigration reform over the years are coming to understand that their party may soon become irrelevant unless they take the Latino constituencies more seriously.

No one will find it difficult to make the argument for fixing our broken immigration system. Besides making US immigration laws more humane and respectful, a new policy approach would be a boon for the US economy. Migrants today are filling crucial jobs, increasing the US capacity for growth, and helping to sustain the US social security system. By addressing critical labor demands and giving law-abiding migrants the opportunity for legal employment and additional training and education, a sensible reform of US immigration policy could multiply their economic contribution many times over. And no other policy change would be more welcome among our nearest neighbors in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean.

Peter Hakim is President Emeritus and Senior Fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue.