Despite Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio's strong showings in polls, the Republican Party may be tarnished in the eyes of many Latino voters due to Donald Trump's success during the primaries.

The Trouble is Trump

After announcing his candidacy in June 2015, Trump drew the ire of many Latino voters with his incendiary remarks regarding Mexican immigrants and his talk of making Mexico pay for a border wall.

As Latin Post previously reported, Trump described Mexican migrants as criminals and rapists.

“When Mexico sends its people, they are not sending their best,” said Trump. “They are sending people that have lots of problems, and they are bringing those problems to us. They are bringing drugs and they are bringing crime, and they're rapists."

Given the chance to clarify his views in immigration on MSNBC, Trump restated his views. “We have drug dealers coming across, we have rapists, we have killers, we have murderers. What do you think they're going to send us -- it's common sense -- they're going to send us their best people and their finest people? The answer is no."

According to an August 2015 Gallup Poll, 65 percent of Hispanics viewed Trump unfavorably at the time. A similar July 2015 poll conducted by NBC found that 75 percent of Latinos saw Trump negatively.

More recently, a Public Policy Poling survey shows Trump now has 35 percent of the votes for the upcoming South Carolina primary, while Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are both tied at 18 percent.

Concern Among Conservatives

In 2013, the GOP put out a 100-page report in which they attempted to outline and identify the problems within their party. The party looked to find ways to fix problems that held candidates back among certain voter groups. One of the problems the report identified was Latinos' views of the party.

“It is imperative that the RNC changes how it engages with Hispanic communities to welcome in new members of our party,” the report read. “If Hispanic Americans hear that the G.O.P. doesn’t want them in the United States, they won’t pay attention to our next sentence.”

Despite the findings of the report, high profile conservatives, such as Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh, continue to speak divisively about immigration.

In Coulter’s recent “¡Adios, America!,” the conservative commentator writes that current immigration policies are turning the nation into a third world country. As quoted in the National Review, Coulter writes, “America’s suicidal immigration policies are the single biggest threat facing the nation.”

Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh has likened migrants coming in from Mexico to an attack on the country. According to a 2015 show transcript, Limbaugh said, “What is happening on our Southern border is not immigration. This is an invasion. And it's not just happening here. It's happening in all parts of Europe, where borders essentially don't even exist. But it's wrong to talk about this as immigration. It's wrong to talk about it in terms of trying to come up with immigration policy.”

Latino Candidates in Line with the GOP

Despite being Latinos, both Cruz and Rubio fall in line with the anti-migrant rhetoric of the right.

According to his official campaign site, Rubio would deal with immigration by immediately canceling Obama’s executive orders regarding undocumented migrants. He would then eliminate federal funding for “sanctuary cities” that shelter undocumented migrants from deportation, and hire 20,000 new Border Patrol agents.

According to Cruz's site, the senator celebrates immigration but stressed that it must be legal. Like Trump, he believes that lax border policies have have encouraged drug smugglers and murderers to enter the country.

Aside from immigration, the minimum wage is major issues with Latino voters.

As Bloomberg reports, both Cruz and Rubio have opposed raising the minimum wage to $10.10 from $7.25 where it now stands.

Cruz, a Cuban-American, recently made history by becoming the first Latino candidate to win a presidential caucus or primary when he won the Iowa caucus. In 2012, the candidate spoke of how vital the Latino vote was for the health of the GOP, especially in his own state of Texas.

"If Republicans do not do better in the Hispanic community, in a few short years Republicans will no longer be the majority party in our state," he said.

Expanding Electorate

With an estimated 55 million Latinos currently living in the U.S., winning the Latino vote is essential for the survival of the Republican party. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, Latinos will account for 40 percent of the growth in the electorate between 2012 and 2030. This will bring the number of Latinos eligible to vote to 40 million.

Whatever Trump has done for the GOP, he has certainly inspired Latinos to register to vote.

Mi Familia Vota, a nonpartisan group that strives to bring political power to Latinos, claims to have registered around 32,000 new Latino voters in 2015. Ben Monterroso, the executive director of Mi Familia Vota, said this is all due to Trump being in the race.

"When Donald Trump decided to get into the campaign by insulting all the Latinos, we saw an increase in voter registrations,” said Monterroso.

As previously reported Monterroso contends that there is no presidential candidate that can get into the White House without the Latino vote.

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