Super Tuesday State Electorates Rapidly Changed by Mass Immigration

by John Binder 3 Mar 2020

The majority of Super Tuesday states, where 2020 Democrats presidential primary candidates are vying for delegates, have had their electorates rapidly changed by mass immigration to the United States over a relatively short period of time.

Today, Democrat primary voters are heading to the polls to cast their ballots for any of the remaining presidential primary candidates, which include former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI).

The electorates of Super Tuesday states — including California, Texas, North Carolina, Virginia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Colorado, Tennessee, Alabama, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Utah, Maine, and Vermont — have quickly changed due to the nation’s importation of about 1.2 million legal immigrants every year.

Those legal immigrants secure green cards and can, within five years, apply to become naturalized citizens, which gives them local, state, and federal voting rights so long as they are 18 or older. Legal immigrants have nearly doubled their eligible voting population since 2000, with now more than 23 million foreign-born voters eligible to vote.

In the next 20 years, the nation’s legal immigration system, if unchanged, is expected to add about 15 million new foreign-born voters to the American electorate. Roughly seven to eight million of those foreign-born voters will have arrived through the process known as “chain migration,” whereby newly naturalized citizens can bring an unlimited number of foreign relatives to the U.S.

California

California, the state most changed by legal immigration, has an electorate wherein one-in-five eligible voters are foreign-born — the highest foreign-born voting population in the country. In total, about 5.5 million foreign-born voters are eligible to vote in California, making up 21 percent of the total state electorate.

Across California, the foreign-born population has grown by 4.2 million residents since 1990, with close to 11 million foreign-born residents now residing in the state. Today, foreign-born residents in California — primarily from Mexico, Central America, and China — account for almost 27 percent of the state’s population.

(New York Times)

Nearly 50 percent of California’s foreign-born residents are Latino or Hispanic, a demographic group that has helped Democrats sweep elections, even in former staunchly-Republican districts like Orange County, California. Another 34.4 percent of California’s foreign-born residents are Asian.

In Orange County, as the Los Angeles Times reported, registered Democrats now outnumber registered Republicans due to “changing demographics” driven almost exclusively by legal immigration.

Texas

Over the last 30 years, Texas’s foreign-born population has more than tripled, which in turn has caused an increase in the state’s overall foreign-born voting population. Today, there are nearly two million eligible foreign-born voters in Texas.

In 1990, the foreign-born population in Texas accounted for only about nine percent of the state’s total population. Fast-forward to today and foreign-born residents account for more than 17 percent of the total Texas population.

About 66 percent of these foreign-born residents are Latino or Hispanic and 81.5 percent of them are between the ages of 18 to 64.

Virginia and Massachusetts

Virginia’s foreign-born voting population has ballooned to about 550,000, helping state Democrats sweep gubernatorial, state legislator, and local elections in recent years. The New York Times called Virginia’s booming foreign-born population, thanks to legal immigration, a “tidal wave” that has secured electoral dominance for Democrats.

In 1990, Virginia’s foreign-born population made up only five percent of the state’s population. Today, the foreign-born population accounts for 12.5 percent with more than a million foreign-born residents.

More than 91,000 Indian nationals have arrived in Virginia over the last three decades, the largest group of nationals from any one country. This migration has been largely aided by the federal H-1B visa program that brings mostly Indian nationals to the U.S. to fill professional jobs that would have otherwise gone to white-collar Americans.

(New York Times)

Massachusetts has experienced similar trends in mass legal immigration. Since 1990, nearly 600,000 foreign nationals have resettled in the deep blue state. This represents a more than 101 percent increase in Massachusetts’ foreign-born population.

The increase means that about 619,000 of those foreign-born residents are eligible voters and can further help secure election victories for Democrats.

North Carolina, Colorado, and Minnesota

In North Carolina, there are now about 307,000 foreign-born voters, which has coincided with the state’s rising foreign-born population. Consistently, North Carolina has tended to deliver small margins of victories to presidential candidates. In 2016, Donald Trump won the state by less than a 200,000-vote margin against failed Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton
.
Three decades ago, foreign-born residents accounted for less than two percent of North Carolina’s total population. At that time, only about 115,000 foreign-born residents lived in the state. Today, the foreign-born population is nearing one million, making up more than eight percent of the population.

Almost half of these newly arrived foreign-born residents to North Carolina are Latino or Hispanic and are arriving from South America, Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. About 320,000 foreign-born residents in North Carolina are naturalized citizens and are eligible to vote so long as they are 18 or older.

(New York Times)

Colorado and Minnesota have similarly experienced surging levels of legal immigration to their states over the last three decades, though their migrations are arriving from different regions of the world.

In Colorado, the foreign-born population has increased by more than 286 percent since 1990. The state’s foreign-born population has surpassed more than 550,000 as of 2017 estimates. More than 245,000 of those new arrivals have come from Central America and, more specifically, 225,000 have come from Mexico.

Colorado has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 2004. Today, about 235,000 of Colorado’s foreign-born population are naturalized citizens and can vote so long as they are 18 or older.

In Minnesota, where nearly 20,000 refugees have been resettled since 2009 in the Minneapolis metro area, the foreign-born population has grown by more than 330 percent since 1990. Unlike Colorado, the majority of new arrivals to Minnesota are coming from Africa and Asia.

For example, close to 30,000 have arrived in Minnesota from India in the last three decades, as well as nearly 90,000 from Eastern Africa. Minnesota is home to about 255,000 naturalized citizens who can vote once they turn 18.

Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, and Oklahoma

Even smaller, southern states on Super Tuesday have been relatively impacted in a large way by the nation’s level of legal immigration since the 1990s.

Tennessee, for instance, has been inundated with legal immigration since 1990. The state’s foreign-born population once stood at less than 60,000. Today, it has been hiked up to nearly 350,000 — an almost 500 percent increase in the foreign-born population.

More than 40 percent of Tennessee’s new arrivals over the last three decades are Latino or Hispanic. About 130,000 foreign-born residents in Tennessee are naturalized citizens and can become eligible to vote.

Arkansas has taken a huge flow of legal immigration as well. Since 1990, Arkansas’ foreign-born population has grown by more than 460 percent, a high level for a state with just about three million residents total.

Nearly 60 percent of these new arrivals are Latino or Hispanic and the majority are arriving from South America, Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Mexico, alone, has sent almost 60,000 nationals to Arkansas. Like Tennessee, Arkansas has a relatively low naturalization rate with only about 45,000 foreign-born residents being naturalized citizens who can become eligible to vote.

Alabama and Oklahoma have each seen their foreign-born populations increase by about 288 percent since 1990. Both states have seen surges in their Latino and Hispanic populations with about 47 to 56 percent of their new arrivals arriving from Latin America.

The two states have a combined naturalized citizen population of about 150,000, delivering more voters to be swayed for Democrats in the 2020 election.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2...s-immigration/