New York Times
By Alan Rappeport
August 18, 2015
Republicans
were hoping to leave their immigration woes behind, but six months
before the Iowa caucuses, Mr. Trump has made that impossible.
By
articulating his policy of rounding up immigrants and building a big
wall, Mr. Trump has forced the party to talk about immigration in the
terms of its most ardent
activists. So much for Republicans wooing Hispanic voters with a more
moderate tone.
“Chasing
extremists on immigration to win the primary will end the Republican
Party’s ability to win the general election in 2016, and it will destroy
the party,” said
Kica Matos, a spokeswoman for the Fair Immigration Reform Movement. “If
you alienate the fastest-growing voting block in the country you cannot
win today, and you cannot survive tomorrow.”
Conservatives
walk a tightrope in both directions, running the risk of upsetting
their base by breaking too far from Mr. Trump, who leads in the polls.
But a Gallup survey
this month found that just 31 percent of Republicans favor deporting
all illegal immigrants — as Mr. Trump wants to do.
The
tension in the party was evident on Monday when Gov. Chris Christie of
New Jersey said that Mr. Trump’s plan to build a wall “didn’t make any
sense” and when Gov.
Scott Walker of Wisconsin echoed Mr. Trump’s support for ending
birthright citizenship, suggesting to Iowans that he had inspired much
of Mr. Trump’s overall plan.
On
Monday evening, Lorella Praeli, the America Latino outreach director
for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign, released a statement linking Mr.
Walker to Mr. Trump, and
both of them to the rest of the party.
“It
is disturbing that Republican presidential candidates continue to
embrace extreme anti-immigrant positions as core pieces of their
immigration platform,” Ms. Praeli
said.
As
Mrs. Clinton heads to Nevada on Tuesday to meet with members of the
A.F.L.-C.I.O., she will most likely be eager to resume the debate.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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