Thread: Hispanics Did Not Desert GOP Because of Stance on Immigratio

Hispanics Did Not Desert GOP Because of Stance on Immigration, Finds Exit Polling





Hispanic voters deserted the Republican Party in large numbers in the recent elections, according to exit polling conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center and the William C. Velasquez Institute. But so, of course, did voters all across the board, resulting in the party losing control of both houses of Congress and many governor’s mansions. According to exit polls — surveys taken of actual voters as they left their polling places — Democrats received 69 percent of votes cast by Americans of Hispanic heritage, versus just 30 percent for Republicans. This result compares to a 58 to 40 percent edge enjoyed by the Democrats in the 2004 elections.

The illegal alien advocacy network and many pundits immediately spun the results as a repudiation of congressional Republicans’ stance on immigration, especially of the passage by the House of a tough immigration enforcement bill in the last session. As is often the case, however, the conventional wisdom turns out to be wrong. According to the analysis done by the Pew Hispanic Center, immigration policy was of little consequence in the voting decisions made by Hispanic voters. “It is important to note that immigration in the Latino population is never a top-tier issue,” said Gabriel Escobar, associate director of the Pew Hispanic Center.

The findings of the Pew Hispanic Center’s exit polling indicate that Hispanic voters turned away from the Republicans for the identical reasons that many non-Hispanic voters did in this election. Dissatisfaction with the handling of the war in Iraq, insecurity about the economy and their own middle class jobs were the driving forces behind the voting decisions of Hispanics, much as they were for voters of all racial and ethnic backgrounds. “It may be that this election was more a reflection of this Democratic wave than any sort of fixed tack to the right or left by the Latino voters,” Escobar said.

The illegal alien advocacy lobby believed that opposition to the House enforcement bill and their own demands for a sweeping amnesty would be a catalyst to register 1 million new voters before the 2006 elections. Not only were those goals not met, but the massive illegal alien rallies last spring generated strong general opposition to an illegal alien amnesty, and resulted in the emergence of an American Hispanic voice calling for immigration enforcement. The results of the exit polling, together with development of organizations like You Don’t Speak for Me!, which works closely with FAIR, provides strong evidence that there is a large gap between the claims of the illegal alien advocacy network and how actual Hispanic citizens in this country exercise their votes.

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