Here's one huge reason why the Republicans are screwed for the foreseeable future:
Barack Obama won about two-thirds of the Hispanic vote this year, up from the 53 percent that John Kerry won in 2004.
And the Republicans are very, very worried about the Hispanic vote. They see the African-American vote as largely gone, but the Hispanic vote was a possibility in future elections. If only Republicans knew how to appeal to Hispanic voters.
You don't do it by demonizing and deporting Latinos while calling them "wetbacks." This is going to erupt into a huge internal debate within the Republican Party: do they abandon illegal immigration as an issue, or do they listen to the far-right and remain a minority party for at least a generation? I'll enjoy watching that one.
By 2050, Latinos will represent 30 percent of the population of the United States. Getting hawkish about immigration was probably a bad, bad idea.