Today was the fourth of an on going series of NCLR sponsored blogger calls. NCLR will be partnering with the Immigration Policy Center for this fourth blogger call where we will be discussing a forthcoming report prepared for the Immigration Policy Center by the consulting firm of Rob Paral & Associates.

There report explores the growing electoral clout of naturalized citizens and immigrant communities or as they are now being grouped electorally “New Americans.” The report is being touted as being highly innovative in that for the first time it examines “New Americans” as a distinct group and acknowledges the voting power of not only naturalized US Citizens, but their US-born children born after 1965. These children are of particular interest because having watched a parent navigate through a new society and culture, they have personal connections with both the efforts made by immigrants and the reactions of society to them.

Thursday’s briefing will provide insight into the ranks of New American voters, along with Latino and Asian voters, who have been growing rapidly this decade and will likely play a pivotal role in elections at all levels in the years to come – particularly in battleground states like Florida, Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico.

Immigration Policy Center Blogger Call The New American Electorate: The Growing Political Power of Immigrants and Their Children
Ground-breaking Analysis of America’s Fastest Growing Voting Bloc

Speakers:
Rob Paral and Madura Wijewardena, Rob Paral & Associates
Tuyet G. Duong, Asian American Justice Center
Clarissa Martinez, National Council of La Raza
Frank Sharry, America’s Voice
Angela Kelley, Immigration Policy Center

The presentation that was given in the conference can be found here and the full report here.

This is what the study found -

2006: Close to one in 10 registered voters was a New American
- 7.6 million were Naturalized Americans, accounting for 5.6 percent of registered voters.
- 4.1 million were Post‐1965 Children of Immigrants, accounting for 3.0 percent of registered voters.

Latinos and Asians Accounted for 9.3 Percent of All Registered Voters in 2006
- 9.3 million Latinos comprised 6.8 percent of registered voters
- 3.3 million Asians accounted for 2.5 percent of registered voters

The Number of Latinos and Asians Registered to Vote Increased Nearly 46 Percent from 1996 to 2004
- The number of Latinos registered to vote grew from 6.6 million to 9.3 million—an increase of 41.6
percent.
- The number of Asians registered to vote increased from 2.1 million to 3.4 million—an increase of 58.6
percent

New Americans, Latinos, and Asians Look to Immigration When Voting
Immigration appears to be a key issue driving the rise in naturalization rates and voter registration among New Americans, Latinos, and Asians. New Americans, Latinos, and Asians, regardless of their immigration status, all feel the impact of the current environment—some because they or close family members are immigrants, others because they may “look like” immigrants in the eyes of government authorities and the broader public. Anti‐immigrant policies affect not just immigrants, but the Latino and Asian communities in general.

The political power of New Americans, Latinos, and Asians will continue to grow
The political power of New American voters will continue to increase in coming years as more and more children of immigrants come of voting age, more long‐term legal immigrants become naturalized citizens, and increasing numbers of New Americans register to vote.

The key to the electoral power of New Americans is voter registration. If more New Americans register to vote, it is likely that they will turn out in high numbers, thereby increasing their share of the electorate.

Since the agenda of this conference call was on this report, the remaining speakers mostly echoed the finding of the report.

Here is a CSPAN link of The New American Electorate

I find this information very eye opening in light of recent events regarding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Hidden in an article about Congress not “unlikely to approve a tax rebate before President Bush leaves office,” Pelosi also signed the Democrats will have to sacrifice the fight of “giving illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.”

In an interview with The Associated Press, Pelosi said: “Maybe there never is a path to citizenship if you came here illegally. I would hope that there could be, but maybe there isn’t.”

This is not sitting well with the member of The Sanctuary.

I find it odd that Pelosi would be making this statement so close to the election, knowing that taking this stance is how the GOP lost the lost the Hispanic vote.

What concerns me, Pelosi is not a person who is willing to back off once she has made up her mind. And this not the first time she has taken off an important issue off the take right before a national election. Last time she decided to take a bold stance and deciding to go against the will of the people was the issue of impeachment during the 2006 election.

While Pelosi may not respect the will of the people, hopefully the new members of Congress will, especially those in the battleground state, knowing that it was the increase of Latinos and Asians voters who help put them there.

Related posts

• Score One for the Latinosphere (1)
• Score Another for The Latinosphere (3)
• XP’s Register to Vote PSA (2)
• Voter Engagement Blogger Call (3)
• The “Latino Debit” Explained Part I: Paying To Play (11)

Tags: blogosphere, Democrats, Elections, Latinos/as, NCLR |  Print This Post |
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