The picture will be far different in the 2016 presidential election, where Hispanic voters will be much more prevalent.

“If this were a presidential election, President Obama would have passed the executive action,” predicted Ana Navarro, another adviser to the 2008 McCain campaign.

Evidence of the stark difference between the midterms and a presidential is that Obama took action in the other direction, deferring some child deportations with a program called DACA, in 2012.

“When he issued DACA in 2012 he was saving his skin, by not issuing executive action in 2014 he’s trying to save Senate Democrats,” Navarro said.

Added another Republican operative: “What is happening now is Republicans are conflating administrative action with amnesty and the collateral damage of that is the [gang of 8] Senate bill.”

“I think the politics are with us now,” the operative added. “But I think that it will be fleeting, and I think the politics will whip back around to being problematic for us.”