When Will the GOP Consistenly Begin to win a majority of the Latino vote?

[Sbane]

If the GOP wants a large share of the Latino vote, which is very much possible as we saw in 2004, they should stop passing xenophobic laws like we have seen in AZ and various other states. The Republican party has a choice to make. Do they go after the bigot vote or do they try and peel off Hispanics who are swing voters. The GOP is going with the first option currently because there are more votes to be gained there. They will move to the second option soon because it is inevitable but they better hope the damage isn't done like it was with the Black community. Though Hispanics are immigrants and their voting habits should be looked in that perspective, which is not similar at all to Black peoples experience. Still, if racist laws are continued to be passed, Republicans will lose the substantial support they still receive from US born Hispanics.

Also I would like to add that immigration reform or amnesty is not necessarily needed to get Hispanic votes. It would help and would speed up the process but as has been rightly pointed out, US born Hispanics don't care much about immigration issues and as has been seen they vote more Republican. But when you pass racist laws where they could be pulled over just because of how they look, that affects everyone who is Hispanic (or looks Hispanic) and whether they are US born or immigrants goes out the window. They will react by voting for Democrats to protect themselves against racism and discrimination. Republicans, wouldn't you do the same if this happened to you?

[Sbane]

And of course, my other megatrend obsession which is that as a greater and greater percentage of US hispanics are US born, (regardless of immigration trends) other issues start to outweigh the whole immigration issue.

I think that is absolutely the case right now. And yet Republicans will do much worse among US born Hispanics than they did in 2004.