A swing and a miss from Romney on immigration

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign is starting to worry about the damage Republicans have done with Latino voters. Romney aides are reportedly “concerned” that the GOP “is turning away the increasingly powerful constituency.”

The fears are well grounded; Romney and other Republicans have been alienating Latinos — the fastest growing voting constituency in the U.S. — throughout the 2012 race, so it stands to reason the likely GOP nominee will take steps to shake the Etch A Sketch and undo some of the damage.

But if Romney thinks rhetoric like this will improve his standing, he’s deeply confused.

In a pitch aimed at the nation’s growing pool of Hispanic voters, Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney attacked President Obama today for failing to fix the nation’s broken immigration system. […]

Speaking at an oil distributorship, the former Massachusetts governor said the president “chooses to do nothing” about fixing America’s immigration laws and noted that Obama had pledged to make the issue a priority during his 2008 campaign for the White House.

Let me get this straight. Barack Obama wants comprehensive immigration reform, including the DREAM Act. Latino voters want comprehensive immigration reform, including the DREAM Act. Congressional Republicans have rejected all efforts to pass comprehensive immigration reform, including the DREAM Act, and Mitt Romney agrees with his party.

So Romney’s new message to Latinos is, in effect, “Vote for the candidate you disagree with, and reward the party that killed the agenda you support.”

Is this some sort of delayed April Fool’s joke? Does Romney seriously believe Latino voters know literally nothing about the debate over immigration policy in Washington?

Romney is an opponent of the DREAM Act; he’s palling around with Pete Wilson and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach; he endorses a “self-deportation” agenda; he’s critical of bilingualism; and his casual dismissals of “amnesty” and “illegals” are a staple of his campaign rhetoric.

Romney is going to have to do better than “Obama hasn’t passed laws I already oppose.”