Conservative Latinos Consider Abandoning GOP After Arizona Immigration Controversy

Arizona's tough new legislation designed to crackdown on illegal immigration is earning low marks from Hispanic-Americans, and may even be driving them out from under the GOP tent, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

From the Journal piece:

Adam Bustos, a third-generation Mexican-American, has voted Republican since Ronald Reagan ran for president. But he has been reconsidering his party affiliation since Arizona State Gov. Jan Brewer signed the nation's toughest immigration law last month.

"I've been thinking I might leave the party," said Mr. Bustos, a 58-year-old Arizona native. "A lot of my Latino Republican friends have been talking about it after this law."

Arizona's SB 1070 gives expansive new powers to law enforcement officials attempting to halt the flow of illegal immigrants into the border state. While the bill's supporters say that the measures are a reaction to the federal government's failure to adequately secure the border, critics say that is a latent endorsement of racial profiling that will lead to harassment of Latinos, regardless of legal status.

Now, as the Journal reports, conservative Latinos, who have become an increasingly important Republican constituency in a number of Southwestern states, are considering bucking their party. SB 1070's negative impact seems to be making ripples all the way to the furthest right Hispanics within the GOP.