Recent polls indicate that Republicans will not fair as well in the 2016 general election as in the Republican primary elections when it comes down to the controversial issue of immigration reform.

The immigration reform issue has been, and likely will continue to be, a winning issue for Democrats, as Republicans are still trying to figure out how to embrace Hispanics.

Instead of Republicans like Florida state Representative Erik Fresen and state Senator Renee Garcia pandering to the pro-illegal immigration lobby and pushing hard for immigration reform, they should know better than to follow the anti-Republican lead narrative of the Democratic Party.

Even operatives like Rudy Fernandez, who worked under George W. Bush in the White House, is using leftist terminology by referring to some of the 2016 Republican presidential candidates as “anti-immigration” and “extremists.”

It is embarrassing to see establishment Republicans like Fernandez and others still talking about how tackling the immigration reform issue will win them votes.

It won’t.

If Republicans like these three would focus on the issues that really matter to Hispanics—education and economic prosperity—then the GOP would have a better chance of garnering more votes and support from the growing and highly coveted Hispanic voting bloc.

But because they can’t seem to get their heads out of their asses and be reactionary to the Democrat Party talking point that Republicans are anti-Hispanic and/or racist and don’t want immigration reform, then the GOP will continue to lose this argument.

Again, the U.S. does not have an immigration problem, it has an illegal immigration problem.

Here is what Garcia and Fresen said, reported by the Miami Herald:

For the Republican Party to go after the Hispanic vote, “We can’t do that if we are going to take these hardline stances on immigration issues,” said Sen. René García, R-Miami.

State Rep. Erik Fresen, R-Miami and past chair of the county’s GOP party, noted that the early states that have a segment of anti-immigration voters “are not anywhere near as impacted by immigration itself as far as raw numbers.” And yet those voters can create “fantastical opinions.”

“Ignoring, yelling at or hating immigration is no more a solution than the current fractured system,” he said. Fresen called for a presidential candidate “who can articulate a clear and concise solution to immigration reform” rather than impractical ideas such as mass deportation.

Who is calling for a “mass deportation!?”