MIAMI — Mitt Romney’s promise to veto a measure that would create a path to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants threatens to turn off some Hispanic voters, whose support could be critical in a general election match-up against President Barack Obama.
The issue is gaining prominence as the Republican front-runner heads toward the Jan. 31 primary in Florida, even though most of the state’s Hispanics are Puerto Rican or Cuban-American and, thus, aren’t affected by U.S. immigration law, nor view it as a priority. Still, it’s a state where 13 percent of registered voters are Hispanic, where the nation’s largest Spanish-language TV networks are based and where the nation’s third-largest number of undocumented immigrants live â intensifying the focus on Romney’s position.
“Latino voters, like all voters in this country, are interested in America being an opportunity nation,” Romney said Monday night during a debate in South Carolina, when asked if his promise to veto the so-called DREAM Act was alienating voters. “In my view, as long as we communicate to the people of all backgrounds in this country that it can be better, and that America is a land of opportunity, we will get those votes.”