If Republicans don’t join together with Democrats to pass comprehensive immigration reform, “they will never win another national election,” according to Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.).
Gutierrez spoke at Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C., on Sunday evening, sharing passages from his latest book. He mostly talked about his personal history and experiences, but he did address politics when it came to immigration reform — his most important policy fight. And one that he thinks could destroy the GOP if the Party doesn’t support a comprehensive solution.
“They will never win another national election again,” he said of the GOP.
He pointed out that 2,000 Latinos turn 18, or voting age, every single day. That demographic shift, he said, will result in the Republican Party becoming a Party of cities and localities — unless immigration reform becomes a bigger priority for them.
Gutierrez, himself an American of Puerto Rican descent, explained that Latinos have a community-oriented mindset, and that the passage of laws such as Arizona’s SB 1070 “offends” immigrants nationwide, regardless of their country of origin.
“They’re going out to vote and saying, ‘If you treat my neighbor poorly, if you treat my aunt, my uncle, my cousin, my family poorly — that are not citizens of the United States — you will not have access to my mind, my heart or my vote,” he said.
Gutierrez is an outspoken progressive, but he has still made somewhat unlikely alliances with Republicans in order to push immigration reform. In 2012, the Illinois Democrat praised the immigration reform strategy presented by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), someone he had previously called an “extremist.” Gutierrez also partnered with Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) earlier this year, participating in a pair of immigration reform events in Chicago.
On Sunday, Gutierrez said he would not normally have chosen Ryan as a partner, but couldn’t be too choosey with only 201 Democrats in the House of Representatives.
Earlier this month, the Illinois Representative was among eight members of Congress arrested for participating in a Washington, D.C., immigration rally that blocked traffic.
