In N.J., GOP Senate candidate endorses immigration reform

Breaking from the antiamnesty, secure-the-border hawkishness coursing through the national Republican Party, New Jersey's GOP nominee for a U.S. Senate seat says he would fight for "comprehensive immigration reform" in Washington.

And like many Republicans, Jeff Bell is claiming the mantle of Ronald Reagan.

"Ronald Reagan once said, 'Latinos are Republicans - they just don't know it yet.' Maybe that's politically incorrect to repeat in 2014," Bell wrote in an e-mail to supporters Wednesday. "But I do agree with the premise behind his assertion: If the Republican Party makes the case to them, Hispanics will vote GOP."

Republican Gov. Christie won 51 percent of the Latino vote when he was reelected last year, although he has not taken a position on federal immigration policy.

Bell, who faces an uphill battle against U.S. Sen. Cory A. Booker (D., N.J.) in November, may lay better claim to Reagan than most. Bell worked on two of Reagan's campaigns, producing TV ads during his first successful run for the presidency in 1980.

Other Republicans, both locally (Steve Lonegan) and nationally (U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz), have embraced Reagan but have endorsed immigration policies radically different from Bell's.

Cruz, for one, has opposed a Senate bill that would create a path to citizenship. Bell, who is running a quixotic campaign focused on a return to the gold standard, supports granting citizenship to the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the United States illegally.

Booker also supports a path to citizenship.

The chances of passing immigration reform plummeted in recent months amid an influx of Central American migrants streaming across the Mexican border.

"Our party has been unwelcoming," Bell wrote, saying Hispanics tend to believe in conservative ideas "that life begins at conception, and marriage is composed of a husband and a wife."

Bell said he would support a "generous, market-based" guest-worker program open to low-skilled workers.

He said the immigration law signed by Reagan in 1986 was flawed because it "left out access for immigrants who want to come here and work temporarily without becoming citizens."