Sen. Mel Martinez’s reward for trying to push through immigration reform is a precipitious drop on the polls. He’s fallen to a 37% approval rating. Martinez doesn’t face re-election until 2010, but these numbers must be a concern.

Here’s how one constituent described his dissatisfaction.

The issue has cost Martinez, who lives in Orlando, the support of voters like John Gilbert, a retired aerospace engineer from Orange County.

“What we’ve had is a nonviolent invasion of our country,” said Gilbert, a Republican who voted for Martinez when he was elected in 2004. Gilbert said giving legal standing to illegal workers is not good for the country and will strain schools and hospitals. He said Martinez, who came to the U.S. from Cuba as a legal immigrant as a teenager, would not support it if he weren’t an immigrant.”I can assure you: Those of us who didn’t walk ashore or swim ashore oppose it,” Gilbert said. “We see people coming in and taking over our nation.”

It’s probably a good thing for a lot of Republicans that the immigration bill was filibustered. It looks like it did plenty of damage as it is.

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