‘Time not right to act against immigrants’

MIAMI — Two prominent Florida Republicans urged their party to tone down its rhetoric on illegal immigration or risk driving away Latino voters who may be a important bloc in this year’s presidential election.

The appeals by US Senator Marco Rubio and former Governor Jeb Bush came as Republican candidates courted the state’s sizable Hispanic vote four days before Tuesday’s Florida primary.

“We must admit there are those among us that have used rhetoric that is harsh,” Rubio said in a speech on Friday at the Hispanic Leadership Network in Miami.

“And we must admit, myself included, that sometimes we’ve been too slow to condemn that language for what it is,” he added.

Rubio, a Cuban-american, joined the ranks of a growing number of Republicans who worry about the party’s appeal to Hispanic voters.

Polls show hard-line Republican positions on illegal immigration and border control pose a challenge to Republican attempts to win over some Latino voters. Bush also called for Republicans to tem- per their comments. “Hispanic people hear these debates and I think you turn them off, it’s not a good thing,” he said earlier.

The Florida primary, the fourth in the state-by-state battle for the Republican presidential nomination, offers Republican candidates their first chance to gauge support among Hispanics.

Whoever becomes the nominee to take on President Barack Obama, a Democrat, will need support from Latinos, the largest and fastestgrowing US minority group, to win the White House.