They can be won, as James Brooke suggests in the The Sun:

In the latest sign of a rightward swing of the pendulum in Latin America, voters in Ecuador opted overwhelmingly for tough anti-crime measures, including joint army and police patrols against cocaine gangs.

Ecuador is only one example.

This reminder does not mean the border does not need to be brought to order or that the Democrats’ illegal immigration flood should be absorbed in entirety.  It also does not mean Republicans should try to win immigrants’ support the same way Democrats do:  by pandering to them and trying to win their votes.

Rather, Republicans should put in the effort to craft a genuine and coherent set of policies with positions many immigrants will find attractive.  Furthermore, they should not dehumanize immigrants, as Democrats do when they instrumentalize and infantilize them.  Rather, even when policies involve options for deportation, the humanity of people seeking a better life should never be forgotten.

Too often we lose the debate to progressives when we accept their emotionalist intellectual shortcut.  The fact that somebody is deserving of compassion does not mean the appropriate actions of others is obvious.  The success of the West is premised on trying to bring people into the fold and to offer them a path toward mutually beneficial relationships.  Keep that always in mind.