In an election year where many Latinos have been disappointed by the increased deportations of undocumented immigrants by the Obama administration, Republicans have not only failed to take advantage of this opening, they’ve pushed Latinos further away.

The Republican presidential debates have featured the over-the-top pronouncements of Herman Cain, who suggested the fence along the U.S.-Mexico border be electrified, and Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., who wanted to “deal with anchor babies legislatively” by initiating revised birthright citizenship legislation.

Newt Gingrich — hoping that no one would remember that in 2007 he called Spanish “the language of the ghetto” — struck a fairly positive tone by suggesting that undocumented senior citizens and children should probably not be deported. But Mitt Romney remembered, and not long after he confronted Gingrich about this, he came up with a new idea, calling for “self-deportation” of undocumented immigrants.