Proposed California initiative on immigration

A pro­posed Cali­for­nia bal­lot meas­ure that seeks to rep­lic­ate Ari­zona’s con­tro­ver­sial crack­down on il­leg­al im­mig­rants has some prom­in­ent Re­pub­lic­ans con­cerned it will fur­ther harm their party’s already fraught re­la­tion­ship with Lati­nos.

Al­though it re­mains un­clear if enough sig­na­tures can be gathered to put the “Sup­port Fed­er­al Im­mig­ra­tion Law Act” on the 2012 bal­lot, a num­ber of Re­pub­lic­an strategists and lead­ers said that even the ef­fort to do so has the po­ten­tial to in­crease the chasm between the party’s can­did­ates and the vot­ing bloc whose re­cord-break­ing turnout tilted races in Novem­ber. They equated it to 1994’s Pro­pos­i­tion 187, which would have stopped il­leg­al im­mig­rants from re­ceiv­ing any state ser­vices, had it not been largely voided by the courts.

The de­bate mir­rors one tak­ing place at the na­tion­al level. Sev­er­al prom­in­ent GOP can­did­ates who were suc­cess­ful in re­cent elec­tions have taken a hard line on im­mig­ra­tion. Party op­er­at­ives and lead­ers who have grown wor­ried about ali­en­at­ing Lati­nos this week an­nounced a ma­jor out­reach ef­fort, led by former Flor­ida Gov. Jeb Bush.

Read more: Cali­for­nia Re­pub­lic­ans are split on pos­sible anti-il­leg­al im­mig­ra­tion meas­ure