From 1998 to 2008, the number of eligible Hispanic voters rose 21 percent, from 16.1 million to 19.5 million. This trend is but a start. Projections show the Hispanic population increasing by nearly 200 percent by 2050. No political party can expect to have long-term success without tapping a significant amount of that Hispanic vote.

Many in the Republican Party, however, seem intent on driving a wedge between the party and Hispanic voters. This is most apparent in the immigration debate, but also in the English-only movement and in tough law enforcement proposals that target Hispanics. Republicans are eagerly embracing hardliners and tea party activists who use harsh, anti-immigration rhetoric.

Moderate Republicans, such as Arizona Sen. John McCain, who once backed reasonable immigration reform that provided a path for undocumented aliens to work toward citizenship, are running for the exits, fearful that any policy beyond border control will alienate the conservative base.

President Obama recognizes a political opening for Democrats when he sees one. The president is reviving the immigration debate, again proposing a combination of improved border control with a policy that would allow millions of hardworking immigrants now in this country to obtain citizenship.

The administration does so knowing there will be little Republican support and no chance of passage before the November elections. But he wants to remind Hispanic voters which party embraces reasonable reform and which party would rather peddle harsh oratory and offer unrealistic get-tough policies.

The Justice Department is also challenging the constitutionality of the new Arizona state law that makes it a state crime to be an illegal immigrant. The law allows officers, once they manage to come up with some other offense - loitering, a traffic stop - to demand proof of legal status if they have "reasonable suspicion" a person could be an illegal immigrant. It's not hard to imagine which people will be suspects.

Justice contends the law usurps the federal authority to manage immigration.

President George W. Bush embraced a reasonable immigration policy, recognizing it as both the right moral and political move, but his own party undermined him.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele knows his party is playing a dangerous game by embracing anti-immigration rhetoric for short-term gain. The vitriol on immigration, he said, "harkens back, quite frankly, to the Southern strategy that the Republicans embraced in the 1960s, causing black Republicans to abandon the party."

Make that same mistake with Hispanic voters and Republicans will guarantee their minority status for a very long time.