The party of immigration: Republicans need a new approach to Hispanics and other newcomers.

• Author: Dalmia, Shikha
• Position: Columns - Column

IMMIGRATION restrictionists are right when they argue that proposed "comprehensive" reform won't do the GOP much good with Hispanics. But that isn't because, as the restrictionists believe, Latinos are welfare-grubbing, government-loving Democrats who will never vote for the party that denies them free stuff. It's more because, when it comes to immigration, Republicans don't show them the nice side of limited government.

Mitt Romney's shellacking among Hispanics, nearly 75 percent of whom voted for Barack Obama, brought Republicans to the negotiating table on immigration reform, but only grudgingly. Many still believe that Latinos are a hopeless cause.

In the wake of the election, Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute alleged that the source of the "strong bond" between Hispanics and Democrats wasn't immigration policy but Hispanic support for "strong government intervention in the economy" and "progressive taxation," as if Hispanics are born Keynesians. And an incendiary National Review Online editorial noted that Hispanics are "disproportionately low-income and disproportionately likely to receive some form of government support."

But these commentaries betray a lack of perspective. Hispanics are hardly unique in their voting behavior. With the exception of Cubans and Vietnamese, no minority--rich or poor, on or off the dole--has much love for the GOP.

Consider Indian Americans: More than 85 percent voted for Barack Obama, and 65 percent generally vote Democratic. This despite the fact that, like Jews (another anti-Republican minority), Indian Americans are wealthier and less likely to receive government support than the overall population. What's more, Indian Americans should be natural allies of limited-government politicians, given how much government dysfunction they've witnessed back home.

So how do Republicans manage to alienate nearly every minority? By applying limited-government principles very selectively. During the last fro years the GOP has opposed welfare handouts, racial preferences, and multiculturalism. Yet the Party of Lincoln has looked the other way when the government has oppressed minorities through racial profiling, discriminatory sentencing laws, and, above...