Anti-immigration stance costs GOP

By Charlie Smith
Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 11:13 AM CST

Mounting hostility toward immigrants during the last four years pushed them away from Republicans and into Democrats’ waiting hands, according to a Mississippi Valley State University sociologist.

Chandra Persaud said their votes would have been enough to turn the election in Barack Obama’s favor if he had needed it.

Hispanics, who now make up 15 percent of the U.S. population according to the latest Census estimates, have traditionally voted Republican because of their Catholic backgrounds and Democrats’ support for abortion rights, Persaud said.

However, as the GOP became increasingly known for its anti-immigrant sentiment, she theorizes, the downward pressure on Latinos, Asians and other immigrant groups brought them together under a candidate they believed would embrace them.

“The main reason driving this vote was inclusion,â€