But he gave a speech that could have easily been delivered in Marquette, Ind., rather than Miami, a center of the American Hispanic community. It wasn’t until the very end of the speech that Pawlenty even broached the topic of immigration.

Pawlenty spent more than 20 minutes talking about the restoring the American dream, boosting education opportunities, promoting private sector job creation, relieving the regulatory burden on businesses, preparing American teachers and reducing tax rates. He even took time to praise former D.C. schools chief Michelle Rhee for trying to turn the city’s schools around.

“We need all of you together in this room to please join the cause of making Florida, making Minnesota, and making America a more job-friendly place, not because we’re pro-business but because we are pro-quality of life, improving the quality of life and improving opportunity for all our fellow citizens,” Pawlenty said.

On immigration, he didn’t detail where he stood on the issue or talk about his extensive record in Minnesota trying to tighten state laws governing immigration.

Pawlenty said America is based on the rule of law and that “we can’t have wide swaths of the country nodding or winking or looking the other way to broad violations of the law.”

“The system we currently have is broken,” Pawlenty said. “We celebrate and welcome immigration. … But the system needs to be legal and reasonable and orderly and that is not what we have now.”

Pawlenty said he would “look forward to being one of the voices to come to the table and say how can we make changes in a way that it will improve the strategic objectives of the country.”

And with that, he was done.

“I’m running out of time,” Pawlenty said as he wrapped up his speech.