MIAMI, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- With Florida's Republican presidential primary just days away, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are courting a key demographic: Hispanic voters.
Both candidates addressed the Hispanic Leadership Network Conference Friday in Miami, with Romney receiving a noticeably warmer reception, The Miami Herald reported.
"We are not anti-immigrant. We are not anti-immigration," Romney told the several hundred Hispanics in the audience, referring to ads run in support of Gingrich this week that attacked him on the issue.
Romney said all undocumented immigrants should be granted temporary, legal status and then made to go back to their countries to apply for citizenship.
"We're not going to go out and round people in buses and send them home," he said.
Gingrich, the former House speaker from Georgia, proposed having "young, unattached" illegal immigrants return to their countries to apply for a guest-worker visa. He called for extending legal status without citizenship to families who have been in the country for decades.
Rick Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, also spoke to the group and received the endorsement of the Latin Builders Association. He praised Miami's Cuban-American community for its "passion for freedom."
U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, did not attend the conference and has not expended much effort in Florida, the newspaper noted.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., considered a rising GOP star and a possible vice presidential nominee, told the audience there are those in both parties who have used the immigration issue in an attempt to gain political advantage.
"We must admit that there are those among us who have used rhetoric that is harsh and intolerable, inexcusable," Rubio said. "And we must admit -- myself included -- that sometimes we've been too slow in condemning that language for what it is."
But while he hasn't endorsed a presidential candidate, the Herald said, his position appears closer to Gingrich.
Meanwhile, the South Florida Sun Sentinel said early voting for Tuesday's primary, which ends Saturday, was down in Palm Beach County but still running ahead of Broward County. Through Thursday, Broward County had 5,940 voters come in, while Palm Beach County had 8,529. Broward County has 253,046 registered Republicans to Palm Beach County's 239,471.
