As much as it makes me shudder and as much as I struggle to wrap my brain around it, there are a large number of Latino Republicans. With John McCain pretty much crowned the Republican presidential nominee the focus is on that oh so important Latino vote.

The Spanish language media is all over McCain for his role in formulating immigration reform, including sponsoring a bill on immigration reform that now he wants nothing to do with. Republican Latinos take note.

Latina Lista points out that McCain knows the power of the Latino vote.

After all, he’s been a resident and political representative of Arizona, a state with 40 percent of its population Latino, since the early 80s.

Knowing that Latino vote means knowing what Latinos care about and one of those issues is immigration. From the LA Times:

In recent days, McCain has frequently emphasized that he will try to win California. His advisors believe his work on the controversial immigration legislation that included a path to citizenship for many of the nation’s illegal immigrants will provide an inroad to Latino voters, particularly in the Golden State.

Except he’s not supporting his own legislation anymore. Seems he’s fallen for the criticisms that equate a path to citizenship as amnesty and has gone back to the good ole’ mantra of homeland security. Also from the L.A. Times:

He now says that “we’ve got to secure the borders first,” and that he would vote against his own comprehensive immigration bill if it came to the Senate floor.

Since pointing out flip-flopping has become a standard in modern politics it should be noted that McCain once thought that:

…border security could not be disaggregated from other aspects of comprehensive immigration reform without being rendered ineffective.

McCain also has reversed his position on the DREAM Act, that would allow undocumented immigrants under age 30 to remain in the United States and gain legal status if they attend college or join the military.

After co-sponsoring earlier versions of the bill, McCain said he opposed a version of the legislation that was defeated in October 2007 — though McCain did not cast a vote. While McCain co-sponsored several versions of the DREAM Act in 2003, 2005, and early 2007, he opposed a version of the act (S. 2205) in October 2007.

Via / Latina Lista and Media Matters.