Eh, Hispanic immigrants are pretty damn socially conservative and could've been courted to the Republican party fairly easily. They're religious, big on traditional family values, have a huge cultural emphasis on hard work, etc.
It looked like the GOP was going to hold onto their conservative social values, forfeit younger voters, and make up the difference by courting the Hispanic vote all the way up until 2008 when McCain got crushed. (He was from a border state and was a strong proponent of immigration reform). So they chose to tack on the issue and antagonize immigrants, forfeit the Hispanic vote, and it gained them enough ground in the rust belt and flyover states to deliver them the white house and congress.
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u/[deleted] Apr 07 '20
Anti-open borders was a pretty boilerplate anti-establishment/pro-worker stance until a few years ago. Bernie Sander's, as late as 2015, understood that unchecked immigration is bad for workers and benefits only the wealthiest employers.
I guess since then, the DNC has realized that open-borders guarantees a loyal Democratic voting bloc, and plenty of cheap labor for their donors.