TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told an enthusiastic crowd of Hispanic Republicans on Friday that they are "living proof" of the benefits of legal immigration, but said he wanted to toughen enforcement on illegal immigration.

Romney, who discussed the economy and immigration at a meeting of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly of Florida, promised that he would secure the borders if elected.

"I am a great proponent of legal immigration," he said. read more »

(CNSNews.com) - In the same week that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that her department was going to review the cases of 300,000 illegal aliens in deportation proceedings and allow “low priority” cases to stay in the country and receive work permits — a move House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith called a “back door amnesty” — President Barack Obama’s approval dropped to an all-time low of 44 percent among Hispanics, according to Gallup polling data released today.

That is a drop of 41 points from the spring of 2009, when Obama’s approval among Hispanic Americans peaked at 85 percent (in the weeks that ended April 26, 2009 and May 17, 2009)...

President Obama will travel to the U.S.-Mexico border on Tuesday to lay out a blueprint for comprehensive immigration reform and attempt to restart the debate on an issue he spoke passionately about as a candidate but has made little headway on during his presidency.

In a speech in El Paso, Texas, Obama will make the case that his administration has made significant progress on border security over the last two years, answering comprehensive reform opponents' preliminary objections to tackling reform legislatively.

The Obama administration has doubled the number of patrol agents along the border and deported nearly 400,000 illegal immigrants last year - facts that the president will argue underscore that the conditions are right for a serious debate on overhauling the nation's immigration policy, administration officials said. The president will also argue that current immigration laws are keeping innovative thinkers and skilled workers from contributing to the U.S. economy...

Though Republicans won control of the House in this year's midterm elections, one congressman says that wasn't the party's only victory.

Thirty-eight (38) percent of Hispanic voters cast ballots for House Republican candidates in November 2010, according to exit polls reported by CNN. That is more than House Republican candidates received in 2008 or 2006, which, in Representative Lamar Smith's (R-Texas) opinion, is proof that the GOP's conservative values are universal.

"The idea that we need to listen to our liberal Democratic friends who say you have to be for amnesty if you want to get Hispanic votes, we've disproved that this year -- and I hope we've laid that to rest," he adds...

(CNSNews.com) - Republican Susana Martinez, who won New Mexico’s gubernatorial race by running as a conservative, vowed to boost security along the Southwest border during her campaign.

In a state that is more than 40 percent Hispanic, Martinez took 54 percent of the vote on Tuesday, beating her Democratic opponent, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, by eight points. She was endorsed by Sarah Palin.

Martinez will replace Democrat Governor Bill Richardson, who is nearing the end of his two-term limit. She will be the first female Hispanic governor in U.S. history...

A conservative Hispanic activist is blasting Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for a racially charged remark uttered recently in Nevada.

The Nevada Democrat, who is locked in a tough re-election fight, recently created a firestorm when a YouTube clip from his August 10 appearance before a group of Hispanic supporters in Las Vegas included this comment: "I don't know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican. Okay? Do I need to say more?"

Reid's comment was quickly criticized by one of the GOP's rising stars, Marco Rubio -- the son of Cuban exiles and a candidate in Florida for the U.S. Senate. Rubio called the remark "outrageous and ridiculous"...

The summer of the discontented voter steams onward and, unfortunately for President Obama, polls show voters are no longer blaming the bad times on the George W. Bush administration.

Add Hispanics to the growing list of Obama supporters disgruntled by aspects of the presidents performance, in what has become for the White House and Democrats a seemingly daily beat of gloomy polls.

Mr. Obama gets only lukewarm ratings on issues important to Hispanics in a Univision/AP poll released Tuesday, and, according to a separate Reuters-Ipsos survey, Americans overwhelmingly believe the president has failed to focus enough on job creation...