Newt Gingrich announced yesterday that he expected millions of undocumented workers to leave the country voluntarily in order to qualify for work permits.  The presidential candidate made the statement during an appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation yesterday.

Gingrich has come under fire from conservatives for calling for a pathway to legalization for millions of immigrants.  Gingrich who currently enjoys front runner status in the GOP primary has found his poll numbers slipping over the last 10 days.  Gingrich appears to be straddling the dividing line between the anti-immigrant conservatives  that hold sway in his party’s primary and the Latino voters he knows he needs should he face Obama in November.

Both Gingrich and Mitt Romney have acknowledged that in order to win the 2012 November election that a strategy must be wrought to appease a certain percentage of Latino voters. Gingrich is the only candidate in the GOP primary race that has extensively courted Latino voters.  One example of the former Speaker’s strategy is his Latino news site “The Americano”. The bilingual news site is a serves as his Latino supporter’s sounding board that was founded by Gingrich in 2010.

Latino Decisions, a highly respected polling firm, has indicated that a sizable majority of Latino voters hold some level of distrust toward the GOP.