U.S. Sen. Rand Paul told a group of conservatives on Tuesday that the GOP must get past deportation and focus on greater Latino outreach, Fox News Latino reported.
"If we are to change people's attitudes toward ... the Republican Party, we have to show up and we have to have something to say," Paul said to the audience of Republicans at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. "I hope to be part of that dialogue."
Paul, 51, expressed some home for immigration reform at the symposium, sponsored by the conservative Media Research Center and the American Principles Project.
"The bottom line is that the Hispanic community ... is not going to hear us until we get beyond that issue," Paul said. "They're not going to care whether we go to the same church or have the same values or believe in the same kind of future of the country until we get beyond that. ... We've got to get beyond deportation to get to the rest of the issues."
The Kentucky senator and possible 2016 GOP nominee also called extended visas for high-tech workers "a no-brainer."
However, Alfonso Aguilar, executive director of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, told the audience he doesn't believe the GOP has been "very consistent" in their outreach effort.
"And we don't need to pander to them like the left," Aguilar said.
By the end of the symposium, Paul emphasized the need for a more diverse Republican party.
"I've been saying over and over that the Republican Party cannot win until it's more diverse, until it looks like the rest of America," he said.
