WASHINGTON (McQ) January 05, 2006 — Here come the '06 midterms and The Latino Coalition has released its latest survey of Hispanics just in time to give the GOP heartburn. This survey has been pretty darn good in the past for predicting the behavior of the Hispanic population in this country.

"This survey has become the most reliable and accurate study on Hispanic political and consumer behavior in the U.S. The 2004 National Latino Survey was dead-on accurate in predicting the Latino vote in the 2004 elections," said TLC President Robert Deposada. "We predicted the nine-point spread between Senator Kerry and President Bush, while all other surveys predicted a Kerry win of over 30 points. The results of this year's survey offer similar surprising results and highlight the future trends of Latino adults and Latino voters in the U.S. However, contrary to past years these trends spell trouble for the Republican Party."

"Hispanic registered voters are strongly supporting initiatives to reform immigration while penalizing illegal behavior. A majority of Hispanic voters (52.4 percent) support initiatives that would not allow people who entered this county illegally to become citizens unless they reapply from their country of origin," Deposada said. "By a margin of 50 percent to 41 percent, Hispanic voters support increasing the number of border patrol agents in our southern border, and also support new laws to make sure that employers can only hire workers who are in the U.S. legally (50 percent to 41 percent). An overwhelming majority of 82 percent support the creation of a new Temporary Worker Program. Also a plurality (41.2 percent to 39.9 percent) support imposing a fine of at least $2,000 for illegal immigrants in order to gain legal employment as a temporary worker in the U.S."

"Meanwhile, non-registered Latinos have completely different views on these issues," Deposada added. "They overwhelmingly oppose laws to make sure that employers can only hire legal immigrants (65 percent to 28 percent); oppose increasing the number of border patrol agents along our southern border (61 percent to 29 percent); and they support allowing illegal immigrants to have access to citizenship (50 percent to 40 percent)."

"While there has been enormous progress for the Republican Party under President George W. Bush, there is real danger for a repeat of the Pete Wilson era that alienated Hispanics from the GOP for years," Deposada added. "If the Republican leadership in Congress allows an extremist group to control the debate over immigration reform and put partisan rhetoric over real commonsense legislation, the GOP will eliminate all the progress achieved by President Bush in attracting Hispanics into the GOP."

"The Republican leadership in Congress has failed miserably in keeping the coattails of President Bush among Hispanic voters," Deposada said. "When compared to last year's number on the question of who does a better job at handling key issues, Democrats in Congress kept the same level of support John Kerry had and improved on it, while Republicans cut the numbers in half compared to President Bush"