VDH points out that the Bush approach to increasing the GOP’s share of the Hispanic vote is precisely wrong:
Note as well, that Mexican-Americans, at least in the first and second generation, share many of the same conservative values as most other ethnics. What distinguishes them from conservative Cubans are not necessarily ideas about religion, abortion, gay marriage, drug legalization, or deficit spending, but continual, rather than one-time immigration, and loyalty to politicians who promise de facto open borders and eventual amnesty. Stop illegal immigration and the present Mexican-American community would insidiously either lose tribal identification or become far more conservative—or both. In counterintuitive fashion, the best way that conservative politicians could appeal to Latino voters is not short-term pandering to facilitate open borders, but long-term efforts to close them and help channel the Mexican diaspora along the assimilationist lines of other ethnic immigrations—that eventually became sources of support for conservative causes.