With the Iowa caucuses in the rearview mirror, Mitt Romney offered a fresh reminder that his pandering to the far right on immigration during the primary season will hurt his potential general election chances. Romney’s recent pledge to veto the DREAM Act crystallizes the problems that he and Republican Party as a whole have in regards to immigration and Latino voters. His comments were widely reported in Spanish media and put the nail in the coffin of any hope Romney may have had of competing for Latino voters in the general election.

According to Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, “Romney’s comments about the DREAM Act will disqualify him among a large swath of Latino voters throughout the nation. Millions of Latino voters see their own children and family histories in the aspirations and ambitions of the DREAM youth and don’t take kindly to those determined to slam the doors of opportunity in their faces.”

Polling from Latino Decisions in February 2011 found that 85 percent of Latino voters across the political spectrum support the DREAM Act. Matt Barreto of Latino Decisions wrote that, “Looking to 2012, it is clear that immigration and the DREAM Act will still be on the minds of Latino voters…We broke out support for the DREAM Act by intended vote choice in 2012 and found regardless of how Latinos will vote, a very strong majority support the DREAM Act. Among Obama voters, 79 percent strongly support and 14 percent somewhat support the DREAM Act – that’s 93 percent support for seeing this bill passed among the President’s Latino base. Further, among those who say they are undecided 62 percent strongly support DREAM with 23 percent somewhat support, all told 85 percent in favor.”