Thread: Latinos gain voting strength in California

Over 100 comments left at the source link.
This is what our federal government has allowed to happen.
Have nothing against Latinos but we all know this is largely because of anchors.
And with their high drop-out rate in high schools this is very disturbing.
The powers that be want this to continue?
We're sinking out here with a state deficit.
The future of this state is not looking good.
Coming to your state soon.....
~~~

Latinos gain voting strength in California
By Tony Castro, Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 04/28/2008 12:03:33 PM PDT


Increasing youth numbers among immigrants and their children has pushed Latino voting strength in California to record levels with its presence expected to be significantly felt in local legislative and congressional races in coming elections, according to an analysis of potential new voters.
By the 2012 election, immigrants and their voting-age children could potentially represent 29 percent of California voters, the study released Monday concluded.

Those numbers could potentially drive the Latino share of the state's voter to well more than 50 percent of all voters.

The growth of young Latino voters could have a major impact in the San Fernando Valley with its increasingly large immigrant population but where none of the \congressional representatives in the Valley's four districts is Latino.

The number of 12 to 17 year-olds in 2006 expected to turn 18 by 2012 include some 41,813 persons in the North Valley and some 24,262 in the South Valley - designations of the Valley that were made by the study's authors.

In Los Angeles County, some 457,722 12 to 17 year-olds in 2006 are expected to turn 18 by the 2012.

The analysis is part of a new report released by the nonprofit Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees, a network of foundations working on a wide range of immigration issues, especially focusing on the assimilation of immigrants into American society.

Among the study's findings are that half of the new eligible voters in the state are children of immigrants and more than two of three foreign-born California residents are citizens or eligible to naturalize and vote.

Of the 1.5 million children of immigrants ages 12-17, almost 84 percent - 1.2 million - are U.S. citizens, either through birth or naturalization, the study reported. Most of them are Latino. Other major findings:

-- Immigrants and their children are a potentially large portion of voters

in both Democratic and Republican districts where they represent more than 250,000

voters in seven California counties and more than 100,000 in 15 counties.

-- As more immigrants and their children become voters, they will likely

develop a greater stake in community and become more active citizens.

With more than 325,000 new arrivals each year, California currently is the country's leading destination for immigrants -- home to some 9.9 million foreign-born persons who represent 27.2 per cent of the state's population

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_9084657

O this is great!

Now which Latinos is this referred to: Legal, Illegal or Dead


No doubt that the Mexican block will be the majority of voters soon, and that is my concern. Hispanics coming from Mexico tends to lean very socialistic. Once they ever become legal they can changed not just the state but the country exactly like Mexico. I can't fathom to see my nation just being hand over.

This is my first time ever mentioning this on the forum or any place for that matter, but my older sibling happens to lead the local chapter of LULAC in his community. My Sibling and I are totally opposites when it comes to immigration. My sibling has been supporting immigration (Legal and Illegal) and was involved in that May march of last year in his community and did belong to Mecha during his college years way back.

There is no doubt people like my brother are helping California go down the drain but he is too stupid to see this, but I suspect why he does this.

Also once they get a majority of voter block, they can easily put someone in office simply because they are our "gente" and more corruption and more taxes will be raised. California is now becoming like Mexico, the only thing left is for the violence to reach up here in Northern California. Southern California will now begin to get the gradual violence that has been prevailing the borders. Yet there is no one to blame but the people who elected these fools simply because they are of our own race.

One day those consequences will come home to roost and it won't be pretty. That is why I pray that one day I would like to buy a home with a large large yard to grow my own garden and such because in the coming times it will be difficult.

I shall soon post my personal reason why I am against illegal immigration, however I'm not ready just yet. I learned that sometimes compassion can bring good but sometimes compassion could bring you trouble. In no manner should we tolerate treatment against illegals with physical violence or name calling. I pray for my nation and for the American People to wake up and rise up before it is too late.

Take care all - gotta get up early for work or else I will be late and will blame all of you for it.

REGION: Immigrant voters may be key in next election
Study: North County political districts could see big changes

By EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer | Tuesday, April 29, 2008 10:47 AM PDT ∞


With about 145,000 immigrants eligible to become citizens in San Diego County, the foreign-born population is poised to become an influential voting bloc in the next presidential election, according to a new study released Tuesday.

Moreover, 85,000 children of immigrants in the county will become eligible to vote by 2012, according to the report titled the "Integration Potential of California's Immigrants and their Children."

In some political districts in San Diego County, new immigrant voters could make up 20 percent or more of the electorate by 2012.

The effect of such a shift in the makeup of North County could have an enormous effect on its political representation. The region, which has a large population of new immigrants, is represented by an all-Republican delegation who are among the staunchest opponents of illegal immigration.

North County also has become a flashpoint in the national immigration debate with such efforts as the Escondido City Council's failed ordinance to bar landlords from renting to illegal immigrants.

The study was commissioned by the Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees, a group that promotes immigrants' contributions to the nation and their participation in civic life.

The study culled data from the U.S. Census to calculate how many immigrants live in each county, assembly district and state senate district.

Daranee Petsod, executive director of the Sonoma County-based organization, said the study was important for policy makers.

"We believe that we can't have a vibrant society if we don't integrate immigrants," Petsod said.

Statewide, more than 6.5 million foreign-born residents either are naturalized citizens or are eligible to become naturalized citizens, said Rob Paral, a researcher and the study's author.

In addition to the 6.5 million adult immigrants, there are 1.2 million children of immigrants in California who will be eligible to vote by 2012, Paral said.

The figures in the report may not be surprising to some immigrant rights advocates, who have said that immigrants, by force of their numbers, will change the political landscape of the state and the nation in the near future.

Isabel Alegria, a spokeswoman for the California Immigrant Policy Center, an immigrants rights group based in Los Angeles, said such a huge voting bloc could change the national debate on immigration.

"I doubt that immigrants are going to support anti-immigrant proposals," Alegria said. "I think the message is to representatives is one of inclusion."

Within North County's state assembly and senate districts, new immigrant voters could make up more than 20 percent of voters by 2012, according to the report. For example, the 74th Assembly District, which includes much of North County, has about 69,000 immigrants and their children who would be eligible to vote in the next presidential election, the report says. The 74th District has 250,000 eligible voters.

Other districts in North County could see similar jumps, including a 28 percent increase in the 75th Assembly District, and a 22 percent increase in the 38th Senate District.

The 74th Assembly District is represented by Assemblyman Martin Garrick, R-Carlsbad. He was not available to comment Monday.

Immigrants from Mexico make up the largest group of people from one country, 914,000, who are eligible to become citizens. The second-largest group is from the Philippines, 137,000.

Arcela Nunez-Alvarez, director of the National Latino Research Center at Cal State San Marcos, said the study offers an important glimpse into a segment of the population that is rarely scrutinized.

The information could help local groups refine their efforts to increase participation of noncitizens to become citizens and vote. She said many of those groups are grass-roots organizations that don't have a lot of money and must focus their voter registration and education campaigns where they will do the most good.

"There is a lot of great potential with this report," Nunez-Alvarez said.

The full report is available at www.gcir.org.

Contact staff writer Edward Sifuentes at (760) 740-3511 or esifuentes@nctimes.com.

http://tinyurl.com/5fqz88

Number of California's potential immigrant voters to swell

An analysis finds that they and their children could make up almost 30% of the state's electorate by 2012.

By Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
April 29, 2008

In the first detailed analysis of potential immigrant voters and their children in California legislative districts, a study to be released today shows they could constitute nearly one-third of state voters by 2012.

The analysis, commissioned by a Bay Area immigrant support group, is seen as a political road map to maximize the state's pro-immigrant vote. It also undergirds efforts to intensify political and civic action to help immigrants better integrate into society and win comprehensive legislative reforms, long stalled in Congress.

New votersLA PLAZA: News and observations on Latin America
"We hope policymakers will look at this data to see who is in their district and how to best serve their interests," said Daranee Petsod, executive director of Grantmakers Concerned With Immigrants and Refugees, a Sebastopol, Calif.-based organization.

"With these numbers, immigrants can invigorate our democracy."

Los Angeles County dwarfed all others with about 2.7 million potential pro-immigrant voters -- naturalized U.S. citizens, legal immigrants eligible for citizenship and their children ages 12 to 17 -- followed by Orange, Santa Clara and San Diego counties. Statewide, the total was nearly 7.7 million.

In the Los Angeles area, the San Gabriel Valley had the highest number of such potential voters.

The immigrant voters and their teenage children, who are overwhelmingly Latino and Asian American, made up about one-third of the electorate in state Assembly and Senate districts held by Democrats and about one-fifth of Republican districts.

The analysis was conducted by Rob Paral, a Chicago demographer who charted a similar political road map in Illinois. It was based on 2006 data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Homeland Security.

Joshua Hoyt of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights said Paral's work there has enabled immigrant advocates to launch targeted political action that has helped swing seven state legislative districts and one congressional district from Republican to Democratic since 2002.

Statewide, the Republican district with the largest number of potential pro-immigrant voters is held by state Sen. Bob Margett of Glendora. Nearly one-third of his 29th District, which includes much of the San Gabriel Valley, is made up of such potential voters.

But Margett co-sponsored efforts to create a state border police force and voted against bills to give driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants and to recognize the contributions of immigrants by declaring May 1 as "The Great American Boycott 2006 Day."

In an interview, Margett said the number of potential immigrant voters and their children in his district were higher than he had imagined. But he said that would not change his positions. He described himself as a "law-and-order guy" who would support English classes, naturalization assistance and other services for legal immigrants but continue to oppose most non-emergency services for illegal immigrants.

"I don't want to bend to the winds of political change if it's a right-and-wrong issue, if it's a legal issue," Margett said.

Advocates said the report underscores the need for programs to help integrate immigrants into society, such as English-language instruction and help attaining citizenship. But state funds to support naturalization programs have been cut by half in the last decade to $3 million and are facing proposed cuts of an additional 30%, said Reshma Shamasunder, director of the California Immigrant Policy Center in Los Angeles.

Aside from supporting more immigrant-friendly policies, the state's rising immigrant voting force also could boost efforts to increase funding for schools, roads and other public services because surveys show that they are more willing to accept tax hikes to pay for them, said Louis Di- Sipio, a UC Irvine political science professor.

DiSipio said immigrant voters already are influencing local elections, such as the Los Angeles mayoral race, but it would take time for them to become a decisive vote statewide because they are still underrepresented in the electorate. In 2004, for instance, non-Latino adult whites were 47% of the state population but 65% of voters.

One new immigrant voter is Rebeca Canales, a 26-year-old El Salvador native and UC Davis law student. The independent voter said immigration is a key issue for her; one reason she backs Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton is that he supports driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants and she does not.

The new political road map is one of the tools that immigrant advocates plan to use in intensifying campaigns to win legal status for illegal immigrants, more family and work visas, and other measures to comprehensively reform the immigration system.

In addition to more robust civic and political action, they said they plan to better highlight immigrant contributions to the nation and more aggressively "name and shame" anti-immigrant ideologues.

"The implication is that all California policymakers, regardless of political parties, will need to understand that a growing share of their constituents are U.S. citizen taxpayers who are foreign-born, and demonizing the population does no one any good," said Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Assn. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund in Los Angeles.

teresa.watanabe@latimes.com

http://tinyurl.com/5p78dm

Here's a related article about the Houston area. Not to underestimate anything, but I assume this is not the only area where this is occurring:
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April 28, 2008, 3:08AM
Gap remains between Hispanic population and Hispanic voters
The Associated Press

HOUSTON — The number of Houston-area Hispanic voters has tripled since 1990, making it the region's fastest-growing voting group, according to a newspaper study.

But Hispanics have yet to harness their voting power, as Harris County has the largest Hispanic population in the United States that has never sent a Hispanic to Congress.

Hispanics make up nearly 40 percent of the county's population but just 15 percent of its electorate, officials said. Age and residency status are the biggest reasons. People younger than 18 and those who are not citizens cannot vote, categories that are thought to apply to 1 million Hispanics in Harris County.

Hispanics are expected to outnumber non-Hispanic whites in Texas by 2020. But the number of voting-age Hispanics are not expected to exceed non-Hispanic white voters until about 2050, the Houston Chronicle reported on its Web site Monday.

Some political experts compared Hispanic voters to a sleeping giant.

"The giant is waking up, and he's making a pot of coffee," Houston political consultant Marc Campos said.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5735087.html

Let's say, California's voting majority is all latino (In an Absolut world ). The wealthier and middle class latinos (minority) are paying all the taxes while the poor and illegal aliens (majority) pay nothing, how long before the minority rebels?

Does anyone think for one minute that they won't be screaming to get illegal aliens out? Look to Mexico's solution for their poor.

Well if they are only 29% of the voting bloc then their are a whole bunch of people out there not voting....here lie's the problem where are the other 70 per cent mostly white and black I am sure.