Free Republic

The boom-and-bust cycle in the U.S. housing market over the past decade and a half has generated greater gains and larger losses for minority groups than it has for whites, according to an analysis of housing, economic and demographic data by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center. From 1995 through the middle of this decade, homeownership rates rose more rapidly among all minorities than among whites. But since the start of the housing bust in 2005, rates have fallen more steeply for two of the nation’s largest minority groups—blacks and native-born Latinos—than for the rest...

Unmarried mothers gave birth to 4 out of every 10 babies born in the United States in 2007, a share that is increasing rapidly both here and abroad, according to government figures released Wednesday. Before 1970, most unmarried mothers were teenagers. But in recent years the birthrate among unmarried women in their 20s and 30s has soared — rising 34 percent since 2002, for example, in women ages 30 to 34. In 2007, women in their 20s had 60 percent of all babies born out of wedlock, teenagers had 23 percent and women 30 and older had 17 percent. Much...

BY BETH REINHARD Three months after starting to raise money for a U.S. Senate race, former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio on Tuesday confirmed the obvious: He's a candidate. Rubio's announcement made good on his promise not to be cowed by a potential rivalry with Gov. Charlie Crist, the most popular politician in Florida. Crist is expected to announce his political plans after Friday's final vote on the state budget. ''I don't think the odds are that long,'' Rubio said of his prospects against a potential Crist Senate run. ``Races of this magnitude are decided by who presents a clearer...

From a raw political point of view, it's hard to top Sonia Sotomayor to be Obama's appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court. She's Hispanic, a key group that Obama won over and must keep. She's a woman and, though liberal, was appointed by a Republican. I haven't been able to determine whether she's Catholic, but she's Puerto Rican (most of whom are Catholic) and went to Catholic schools as a child. There already are five Catholics on the court but they're all conservative so they haven't been attacked for being bad Catholics (i.e. being pro-choice despite the church's teaching). But...

Blacks and Hispanics lag behind whites for higher-paying jobs at the largest rates in about a decade as employment opportunities dwindled during the nation's economic woes and housing slump. Census data released Monday show an increasingly educated U.S. work force whose earnings didn't always seem to match up with its potential. ... Among those 25 and older last year, 86.6 percent had graduated from high school, up from 85.7 percent the previous year. It was the biggest increase since 1992, with record percentages of people earning diplomas across all racial and Hispanic categories. The share of people with at least...

According to Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger, his jusisdiction is experiencing an increase in gang violence, particularly from Hispanic gangs like MS-13 and the Latin Kings. A great majority of these gangs are illegal aliens. Maryland is one of the most pro-illegal immigration states in the country because of its sanctuary cities, taxpayer-subsidized day labor centers, support for non-citizen voting and lax drivers license laws. Chief Manger reports that incidences of murder, rape, assault, burglary, and robbery have increased in Maryland in 2008, much of it attributable to gangs. In fact, the FBI recently reported that gangs are now...

LANGLEY PARK, Md. — Class at the youth center had just let out, and a gaggle of teenagers moved toward the door, turning saggy pants and ring tones thrumming with reggaetón hits into adolescent statements of Latino cool. Some had rap sheets, and some had babies. Some had gang tattoos. Most had immigrant parents with menial jobs who survived on sweat and worry. They were children of the Washington suburbs, but the poverty and violence around them rivaled that of urban cores. Jesselyn Bercian paused to rub the belly of a pregnant staff member. “I’m not very happy with my...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hispanics made up nearly half of the more than 1 million people who became U.S. citizens last year, according to a Hispanic advocacy group. The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials said the number of Latinos who became Americans in fiscal year 2008 more than doubled over the previous year, to 461,317. That's nearly half of the record 1,046,539 new citizens overall in 2008, a 58 percent increase from 2007.

Stung over the voting bloc's 2-to-1 support of Obama in November, the senator says to look to the new president for immigration leadership. John McCain sounds angry and frustrated that, despite the risks he took in pushing immigration reform, Hispanic voters flocked to Democrat Barack Obama in last year's presidential contest. McCain's raw emotions burst forth recently as he heatedly told Hispanic business leaders that they should now look to Obama, not him, to take the lead on immigration. The meeting in the Capitol's Strom Thurmond Room on March 11 was a Republican effort led by Sens. McCain of Arizona,...

Maybe John McCain has learned something from his election loss, like it doesn't pay to be a R.I.N.O.. According to a report in the National Journal that was precisely the message McCain gave a Hispanic leaders when they complained about Obama's lack of movement on immigration issues During the ramp-up to the 2008 election, McCain became the symbol of a weak immigration policy as he sponsored a plan which included amnesty for illegal aliens. McCain's reward for alienating his Republican base was a 2-to-1 Hispanic support for his opponent during the presidential vote.

Viva vanity. Rates for Hispanics getting nip-and tuck: Up 18 percent. Rates for whites: down 3 percent. Wonder why? Well...

In an online Spanish language chat room, people from all along the East Coast seek tips on how to get a driver's license in Maryland, though they don't live in Maryland. Businesses run classified ads in Spanish-language publications in the District, Virginia and Maryland urging "undocumented Hispanic friends" to take advantage of the opportunity to get a Maryland ID without having to prove they are in the country legally.

Hispanic Democrats will have their first West Wing meeting with President Obama on Wednesday morning to discuss immigration reform, according to Democratic sources. The meeting is the first face-to-face sit-down between Obama and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) since the president was sworn in. Some in the CHC have recently expressed frustration that Obama has not talked more about immigration in his first two months in office. Immigration reform is front-and-center on the group’s agenda. CHC is eager to hear the president’s ideas and proposals for tackling immigration reform, not only regarding a comprehensive reform bill that could provide a...

Today conservatism is stigmatized in our culture as an antiminority political philosophy. In certain quarters, conservatism is simply racism by another name. And minorities who openly identify themselves as conservatives are still novelties, fish out of water. Yet there is now the feeling that without an appeal to minorities, conservatism is at risk of marginalization. The recent election revealed a Republican Party -- largely white, male and Southern -- seemingly on its way to becoming a "regional" party. Still, an appeal targeted just at minorities -- reeking as it surely would of identity politics -- is anathema to most conservatives....

More Hispanics in College by: Bethany Stotts, March 11, 2009 The number of Hispanics enrolled in college rose 15% between 2006 and 2007. Hispanics accounted for 11.5% of the overall college student population in 2007, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Their report, released March 4, was based on the October 2007 School Enrollment Supplement (SES) to the Current Population Survey (CPS). According to the new numbers, 11.5% of college students are Hispanic, less than one percent are Asian, 13.3% are Black, and White non-Hispanic students account for 66.2% of college enrollment. (Numbers do not add up to 100 percent)....

President Barack Obama walks on stage as he arrives to speak about education at the 19th Annual Legislative Conference of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Washington, Tuesday, March 10, 2009. President Barack Obama smiles as David C. Lizarraga, chairman of the United Sates Hispanic Chamber of Commerce leads the audience in a chant of 'Si se puede' (Yes We Can) as he introduced the president before he spoke about education at the 19th Annual Legislative Conference of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Washington, Tuesday, March 10, 2009.

Treatment Costs Higher Than For Whites CHICAGO -- Striking new research shows dying blacks and Hispanics have much steeper treatment costs than whites, sobering evidence that racial health-care differences continue right up until death. It's not that minorities are being charged more than whites. It's that they tend to get more costly, intensive treatments including feeding tubes and other invasive medical procedures near death. That's in sharp contrast with what often happens throughout their lives, when minorities are less likely than whites to get aggressive medical care. The results raise a troubling question about whether medical resources for nonwhite patients...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Census figures being released Thursday point to a major ethnic shift in America's school kids. About one-fourth of all kindergartners are now Hispanic. And by the year 2023, minority youngsters will constitute the majority.

Thousands of people protesting a sweeping crackdown on illegal immigrants by an Arizona sheriff marched through Phoenix on Saturday, toting placards reading "We Are Human" and "Stop the Raids." Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has dispatched deputies into Hispanic communities in the Phoenix area where they stop people and arrest anyone who cannot prove he or she is a legal U.S. resident. Under a deal allowing them to enforce federal immigration laws, the deputies have arrested more than 1,500 people whom they determined were in Arizona illegally. --snip-- Around 100 counter-demonstrators waving American flags turned out to support Arpaio on...

Change comes to America, as promised by President Barack Obama, with the establishment of the brand new White House Office of Urban Affairs. This new presidential urban power house is a critical need according to the former community organizer and agitator, because "urban areas are where 80% of the American people live and work." Heading up this high level operation is the controversial Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion along with second in command, New York Governor Patterson's Washington lobbyist Derek Douglas. Michael Mcauliff of the New York Daily News reports Obama's announcement. "The Urban Affairs office will focus on wise...

NEW ORLEANS — They are the men still rebuilding New Orleans more than three years after Hurricane Katrina, the head-down laborers from Honduras, Mexico and Guatemala who work on the blazing hot roofs and inside the fetid homes for a wad of cash at the end of the day. But on the street, these laborers are known as “walking A.T.M.’s.” Their pockets stuffed with bills, the laborers are vulnerable because of language problems and their status as illegal immigrants. And as Hispanics have become the prey of choice in crumbling neighborhoods here in one of America’s most crime-ridden cities, racial...

We have known for years that Texas will soon again be predominantly Hispanic. What we have not known so clearly — until a couple of recent reports — is that the white population is dwindling. In a new report on population trends in public schools, the Texas Education Agency reports that Texas now enrolls 130,000 fewer white children than 10 years ago. For the first time, Hispanic children dominate first-grade classes, adding about 4,000 children last year to become the outright majority with 50.2 percent of students. But Hispanic children would have become dominant without even one new student, because...

LOS ANGELES — The sharp growth in illegal immigration and increased enforcement of immigration laws have dramatically altered the ethnic composition of offenders sentenced in federal courts. In 2007, Latinos accounted for 40 percent of all those convicted of federal crimes and one third of all federal prison inmates, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center, a non-partisan think tank. Nearly half of all Latino offenders, or about 48 percent, were convicted of immigration crimes. Drug offenses were the second-most prevalent charge among Latino federal convicts, according to the report, which was made public on Wednesday. As...

WASHINGTON (February 18, 2009) – The Center for Immigration Studies has prepared a detailed employment breakdown for immigrants and native-born Americans based on December 2008 data, the latest publicly available. (The Department of Labor generally does not separate out unemployment statistics for immigrants and the native-born.) Among US-born blacks and Hispanics without a high school degree, unemployment is 24.7 percent and 16.2 percent respectively — two to three times the national rate. * Those native-born Americans most in competition with immigrants, particularly illegal immigrants, are teenagers (16-17), all adults (18+) without a high school diploma, and young workers (18 to...

... A North County Times investigation into thousands of foreclosure records, along with interviews with buyers, reveals a pattern that suggests some real estate agents specialized in clients ---- chiefly Latinos ---- who couldn't afford to buy homes, and helped them buy as many as possible. (Please see "Behind the Numbers" for more on the statistical analysis. ) Some of their customers say the agents posted fliers in low-income apartment buildings and held seminars that encouraged people to get rich by buying and selling multiple properties, usually with low or no down payments. In North County, 6 percent of about...

Location 2100 Maple Los Angeles, CA INTERESTING POINTS: 1. Interesting that this group has the recourses to rent a permanent facility. (even if it is in downtown) 2. Note the mural there is a man holding a Palestinian flag, leading a group of Hispanic people. 3. This facility just opened this month. Downtown Los Angeles is unbelievably dirty. Trash everywhere and just dirt. Very few light posts so it is dark and creepy. The meeting was supposed to start at 6:00 but at 7;15 a gang looking crowd was developing and since I was alone, I thought it best to...

WASHINGTON – When it comes to homeownership, Hispanics in New Jersey, single parents in California and senior citizens in Rhode Island all have something in common: More than a third have an unaffordable mortgage. Inequality in America has traditionally followed familiar patterns of race, age and education. Those long-standing gaps have been magnified by the real estate boom and now the historic bust, according to an Associated Press analysis of 2007 Census Bureau data. While minorities have made significant gains in wealth and home ownership since 1990, "things are going into reverse gear," and now the homeownership rate for blacks...

As it prepares to turn 100, the Boy Scouts of America is honing its survival skills for what might be its biggest test yet: drawing Hispanics into its declining -- and mostly white -- ranks. "We either are going to figure out how to make Scouting the most exciting, dynamic organization for Hispanic kids or we're going to be out of business," said Rick Cronk, former national president of the Boy Scouts and chairman of the World Scout Committee. The venerable Scouts remains the United States' largest youth organization, with 2.8 million children and youths, nearly all of them boys....

It was late November when Angel and her boyfriend visited Silent Voices, a pro-life pregnancy resource center (PRC) in Chula Vista, Calif. Angel's menstrual cycle was also late. It wasn't the first time. The sexually active 17-year-old Latina had stopped in at Silent Voices five or six times since 2004 to take a free pregnancy test. Over the years, said Sharon Pearce, the center's executive director, Angel revealed herself bit by bit. From her perfect French manicure to her designer handbag and jeans, it was clear that her family had money. When she wanted a certain kind of car for...

Subprime Crisis: The media have pounded President Bush for a wave of Hispanic home foreclosures. But it was Democrats who launched a drive to loosen credit for Hispanics — many of them illegals.Democrats and their advocacy groups also prodded Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy the high-risk NINJA (no income, no job, no assets) loans they'd pressured banks to make to Hispanic immigrants. Now immigrants are defaulting on subprime mortgages in droves, adding to the toxic debt that is poisoning the financial industry. Yes, Bush was "eager," as the Washington Post described it, to put more Hispanic families into...

As the inauguration of the first African American president approaches, the national news is full of race-related stories. Rioters have been arrested in Oakland, California, in protest of an police officer allegedly killing an unarmed black man; the Centers for Disease Control report that Mississippi has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the country, predominantly among black and Hispanic teens; and the journal Science reports that "many people unconsciously harbor racist attitudes." Combine these issues with continuing demonstrated disparities in health care, education, housing and criminal justice, and it would be productive to admit the obvious: the election of Barack...

Demography And Destiny To grasp how powerfully demographic change is reshaping the political landscape try this thought experiment about the 2008 election. Start by considering the electorate's six broadest demographic groups -- white voters with at least a four-year college degree; white voters without a college degree; African-Americans; Hispanics; Asians; and other minorities. Now posit that each of those groups voted for Barack Obama or John McCain in exactly the same proportions as it actually did. Then imagine that each group represented the share of the electorate that it did in 1992. If each of these groups voted as it...

California Rep. Joe Baca has long pushed legislation he said would "open the doors to the American Dream" for first-time home buyers in his largely Hispanic district. For many of them, those doors have slammed shut, quickly and painfully. Mortgage lenders flooded Mr. Baca's San Bernardino, Calif., district with loans that often didn't require down payments, solid credit ratings or documentation of employment. Now, many of the Hispanics who became homeowners find themselves mired in the national housing mess. Nearly 9,200 families in his district have lost their homes to foreclosure. Congressional districts with large Hispanic populations often feature heavy...

... [T]he expanded border agency is now 54 percent minority. Hispanics [...] comprise 52 percent of the agents. Since the Bush administration mandated hiring 6,000 new agents to boost the force to 18,000 by the end of this year, the ranks of Hispanic agents have mushroomed. The roughly 6,400 Hispanic agents on duty in 2006 increased 45 percent to about 9,300 last month. ... But there are some concerns about thousands of new agents enforcing laws in the same communities where they have strong family ties, some that extend across the border. ''The problem I think that will come up...

NORWALK - On a cold Tuesday morning, Anabell De La Cruz opened the back of her Jeep and began handing out presents to Hispanic day laborers who have children living with them. The men, some finishing a hot meal of tamales, washed down by Atole, a drink De La Cruz brought with her, patiently waited to receive the Christmas gifts. "If it's hard for us in this economy, imagine how hard it must be for them," she said. For day laborers, this is the toughest Christmas season in years, as jobs have almost disappeared, according to one worker, an Ecuadorian...

For the first time in a decade, unskilled immigrants are competing with Americans for work. And evidence is emerging that tens of thousands of Hispanic immigrants are withdrawing from the labor market as U.S. workers crowd them out of potential jobs. At least some of the foreigners are returning home. "We see competition from more nonimmigrant workers," says Abel Valenzuela, a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles who studies day laborers. "Employers are also paying less than in previous years," he says. In the third quarter of 2008, 71.3% of Latino immigrant workers were either employed or...

Check out this gold-plated resume: Seven-term member of Congress; special envoy to North Korea, Iraq, Cuba and Sudan; U.N. ambassador; energy secretary; governor; and five-time nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize. You would think such an overachiever would be a shoe-in for secretary of state in the Barack Obama administration, especially if that person was also a member of a highly sought-after ethnic group that gave two-thirds of its votes to Obama and helped him win four battleground states... ~~snip~~ Now I wonder what message it sends that President-elect Obama has apparently passed over [New Mexico Gov. Bill] Richardson and...

Barack Obama, soon to be the first black U.S. president, is on the road to making good his pledge to have a Cabinet and White House staff that are among most diverse ever, although some supporters are asking him to go even further. He added to the minority representation at the top of his administration Wednesday when he named New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Hispanic, as Commerce Secretary. But some Latinos are grumbling it is not enough after all the support they gave him in the campaign, and gays and Asian-Americans are pushing for some representation in remaining Cabinet...

If there is one message President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team has broadcast about Cabinet picks, it is that ethnicity and gender will not be the first considerations when filling the slots. Credentials over tokenism, after all, was a fundamental principle of Obama’s presidential campaign that highlighted his ideas and community values over his African-American background. Still, if all goes as planned, Cabinet members with hefty résumés will present a picture of diversity. Hispanic political leaders agree. Their expectations for seats at the president’s top policy table are not about meeting quotas but about advancing the reality that within this fastest-growing...

Soon after cutting billions of dollars out of programs that have helped working Latino families make ends meet, Republicans are putting that money towards tax cuts for capital gains and dividends that overwhelmingly ignore the needs of the Latino community. While one percent of Americans would enjoy over half of these tax cuts, more than 80 percent of Latinos would receive nothing. Working Latino families will find it harder to feed their families and heat their homes while money previously used to help cash strapped families will instead be redirected to wealthy investors. Democrats do not believe in balancing the...

Over at National Review's "The Corner," K-Lo calls it a "cultural indicator:" Congresswoman Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., will likely become Congress's first unwed mother, or single mom, if you prefer. As reported by the Washington Post's Reliable Source, Sanchez -- with help from her "unofficial fiancé" Jim Sullivan -- is "poised to become only the eighth congresswoman in history to have a baby while in office -- and the first to do so while single....The two are 'unofficially engaged,' she says, and looking to buy a house. They will plan a wedding later -- but at her age, she says, planning...

Hispanics in swing states like Florida who boosted Barack Obama into the White House are now looking for a place at the table -- and within the Cabinet and federal agencies as well. As the president-elect's transition team plows through stacks of résumés to fill almost 10,000 federal jobs -- from the high-profile secretary of state to the less glitzy director of the Office of Personnel Management -- Hispanic groups are mobilizing to ensure that the nation's fastest-growing electorate is well represented in the new executive branch. ''We're calling for an administration that looks like America,'' said Peter Zamora, an...

Twenty or thirty years ago, traditional financial institutions fled neighborhoods like Watts, and guys like Tom Nix, co-founder of the biggest chain of check cashers and payday lenders in Southern California, rushed into the vacuum. They built a whole new financial subculture, which now includes regional giants like Nix, national brands like Ace Cash Express, Advance America and Check ’n Go and thousands of local chains and anonymous corner stores — more outlets, in total, than all the McDonald’s restaurants in the United States plus all the Starbucks coffee shops. Inside, it’s like banking turned upside down. Poor customers are...

Leaders of the campaign against Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in California, raised nearly $40 million and ran a careful, disciplined campaign with messages tested by focus groups and with only a few people authorized to speak to the media. They lost. In the week since, California has seen an outpouring of demonstrations ranging from quiet vigils to noisy street protests against Proposition 8, including rallies outside churches and the Mormon temple in Westwood as well as boycotts of some businesses that contributed to the Yes on 8 campaign. Many of those activities have been organized not by political...

Isn't this ironic; the first black president on the decision-end of affirmative action cases. I sure hope he is as fair to the Hispanics as he is to the blacks. Wouldn't want to be racist or offend anybody or not meet the politically correct quota. Welcome to the business end of racial politics Barack.

The battle for control of the State Senate continues. Senator Carl Kruger, one of the three dissident Democrats who have refused to go along with the rest of their party’s pick for Senate leader, said in an interview Tuesday evening that the group won’t make a decision until the new Legislature is seated in January. Mr. Kruger, a Brooklyn lawmaker, said he and his two fellow dissidents — Senator Ruben Diaz Sr. and Senator Pedro Espada Jr. of the Bronx — would prefer that a Latino Democrat lead the chamber. “That’s not necessarily who’s on the right or left, it’s...

The strange bedfellow alliance of Catholics, Mormons and evangelical Protestants that slapped a ban on gay marriage in California last week represents the most “ecumenical union since the fall of Rome.” That’s the view of Richard Hecht, an acclaimed scholar in UCSB’s much-acclaimed religious studies department, whose clear-eyed take on the stunning passage of Proposition 8 cuts through the Babel of political scapegoating and speculation swirling around the election’s biggest surprise. “The issue of traditional marriage brought together this wild, very unlikely coalition,” Hecht told me. “You have the Catholics, who can’t stand the evangelical Protestants, who can’t stand the...

How? By appealing to the Golden State's fastest-growing demographic group, Hispanics. Yes, I know. In recent elections roughly two-thirds of the Hispanics who voted in California went for Democrats. But there is one hopeful precedent: Proposition 227. On the state ballot a decade ago, this measure called for a ban on bilingual education in the public schools. Ron Unz, the high tech entrepreneur who drafted the initiative, based it on a simple conviction: No different from the children of earlier immigrants, the children of Hispanics should be taught in English. Until the week of the election, polls showed that more...

Barack Obama was no better a candidate than Michael Dukakis. That sentence sounds absurd, right? Obama defeated Hillary Clinton in the primaries, and went on to win the highest Democratic vote percentage since 1964. Dukakis, by contrast, barely emerged from a primary field of--at least when their 1988 political statures are compared to Clinton's in 2008--relative minnows, and then went on to squander an enormous polling advantage in the general election. Surely, Obama and Dukakis are not comparable in terms of their ability as campaigners. However, as I discuss in the extended entry, virtually all of Obama's, and really all...

Democrats last night won the grandest political victory since the Reagan Revolution of 1980, not only electing a president but also scoring gains in both houses of Congress. When the final tally is counted, we will likely see that Obama owed his victory to two shifts: a large increase in turnout by ethnic minorities and a big increase in Democratic preference by college-educated whites. In the wake of their bruising defeat, the Republican Party faces an excruciating and divisive choice between two very different futures. The first is on display at the excited rallies that cheered Sarah Palin. This is...