Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies is warning House Republicans that a third party may emerge if they don’t block immigration reform. While speaking to Sandy Rios of the American Family Association yesterday, Krikorian maintained that while it is right for Republicans to “fear” that “amnesty and increased immigration will import lots of Democratic voters,” the more immediate problem for the GOP is a third party.

“It will be a disaster for Republicans,” Krikorian said. “It is a danger that if they pass something terrible a lot more

Republican voters are just going to stay home and you can even see third parties coming up in different elections. Heck even Sarah Palin has toyed with the idea of a third party if they pass this immigration bill so I don’t think they realize how dangerous this is politically from their perspective.”

Krikorian and Rios agreed that apathy among conservative voters was to blame for Mitt Romney’s defeat last year. In fact, the turnout among self-identified conservatives in 2012 was around the same level as in the 2008 and 2004 elections, and Romney won 82% of such voters.

Krikorian accused “political elites and the political consultant class” of attacking the GOP’s position on immigration in order to hide the party’s problems on “economic policies or foreign policies or their candidate that all have very strong constituencies defending them and so they find something that they can attack without any donors being upset because it’s being attacked.”