Earlier this week, the Hispanic Leadership Network Conference was hosted in Miami, and the topic of immigration was inevitably broached. Part of the panel on “Media & Messaging: Communicating Principles with Precision” was syndicated columnist Ruben Navarrette, Jr. who gave a no-holds-barred rundown of the state of the GOP on immigration. Navarrette argued that the GOP has a problem with offensive rhetoric on immigration, and pointed out that Republicans have compared Latino immigrants to “dogs,” “grasshoppers,” etc.”

He also made the argument that the Republican Party (1) deals with immigration dishonestly (2) caters to that ugly element of racism and (3) offers “solutions” that ignore the problem such as the attacks on the Fourteenth Amendment and Arizona’s SB1070.

Part of the problem is the GOP’s inability to take a stance on immigration and kick white nationalists out of its ranks. And even though not all factions of the Party have an inhumane approach to immigration, most Republicans dare not stand up to the virulent anti-immigration propaganda being furthered by the Tanton Network.

Most, but not all. The Texas GOP is one of the very few Republican organizations that is aware of the Tanton Network’s true agenda and denounces it. This is a recent statement from the Texas GOP’s blog site:

“Now, [they] seek to inculcate their agenda and ideals into the Republican Party starting with radical ‘enforcement only’ anti-illegal immigration agenda which easily translates into the anti-immigration agenda advocated by the isolationist/protectionist and radical environmentalist and pro-abortion folks at NumbersUSA and FairUS.”

Organizations that are part of the Tanton Network include the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), Washington-based think-tank Center for Immigration Studies, Tanton’s mobilizing arm NumbersUSA, FAIR’s  legal arm Immigration Reform Law Institute, and a Caucus in the House of Representatives, the House Immigration Reform Caucus.

This isn’t the first time mainstream Republicans have allowed political extremists to operate within their ranks. Examples include former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour.

David Duke make a successful bid to cross-over from the fringe into mainstream politics when he decided to retire the burning cross, ditch the hood, and put on a suit. As a Republican, he had a successful run in the 1989 special election for a Louisiana House seat (he was voted out two years later).

Haley Barbour was exposed for his racist ideologies when he was singing the praises of the Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC), an organization that formed out of the old white citizens councils of the 1960s.

Some may have noticed Barbour’s picture posted on the CofCC’s website during his campaign. He reportedly refused to ask that the picture to be taken down and he still was elected.

As long as the GOP allows the likes of Barbour and the Tanton Network to operate within its ranks, it will have to defend against accusations of racism.

It is time for the GOP to differentiate its identity from that of white nationalism.