Romney Courts Latino Voters, Ignores Latino Press In Florida

Yesterday at the Republican National Hispanic Assembly in Tampa, Florida GOP candidate Mitt Romney took the opportunity to try to court Latino voters — by ignoring the Latino press. This seems like a strange way for Romney to court Latino voters, given that he was speaking at a Latino event, or has he given up on Latino voters all together already?

We noted yesterday that he was using immigration as a tool to ding Rick Perry while trying to align himself with Marco Rubio at this same event.

A Telemundo reporter tried, on camera, to ask Mitt Romney questions about what he would do with 12 million undocumented persons in the U.S. if elected, and whether he would veto a DREAM Act, as he did when he was governor of Massachusetts. He turned away from her and, as she put it, “made it clear he was not there to speak to the press.” Here’s the video [in Spanish]:

Instead, what Romney did address was that he would strengthen the southern border and say he would “stop illegal immigration.” His address, however, seemed to leave something lacking, at least for one Latino Republican interviewed by Telemundo, who noted that what the U.S. needs is comprehensive immigration reform. If Latino Republicans at a Latino event aren’t buying Romney’s border security talk, you’d think it would behoove him to speak to the Spanish language press.

This is especially interesting coming from a guy whose father was born in Mexico, then immigrated to the U.S., and whose family continues to live in that country. It will be interesting to see Romney’s Latino outreach evolve heading into 2012.