Ted Cruz Claims to Have the Key to Hispanic Vote, And It’s Shockingly Simple

CNN reports that, while speaking to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, Ted Cruz took a swipe at Mitt Romney’s infamous “47 percent” remark.

Cruz reframed the conversation, taking the opportunity to connect the remark to the Hispanic vote:

“The media repeatedly said the reason Mitt Romney got clobbered in the Hispanic community was because of immigration…the data don’t bear that out…”

“What the polling data showed is actually Hispanic voters agree with Mitt Romney on a great many issues. Where he got clobbered was ‘cares about somebody like me.’ Where he got clobbered was the 47 percent–you remember the infamous comment…”

While Cruz received only 35% of the Hispanic vote in his 2012 Senate race, conservative politicians made some considerable gains in the 2014 mid-terms.

According to Pew Research, Greg Abbott of Texas garnered 44% of the Hispanic vote, and David Perdue of Georgia garnered 42%.

This is significant, given that just two years prior, Mitt Romney received only 27% of the national Hispanic vote.

Ted Cruz may be on to something. Despite Pew reporting that 84% of Hispanic voters say a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants is more important or equally important as securing the border:

“When it comes to their vote, half (54%) of Latino registered voters say they would vote for a candidate who disagrees with them on immigration policy if that candidate agrees with them on most other issues.”

“We asked Hispanic voters in Texas what your number one issue is. You know what percent said immigration? Three percent…54 percent said jobs and the economy.”

He is talking about being conservative and not giving them citizenship at the same time.

He is also talking about legalizing the lawbreakers allowing them to stay and work here. Citizenship is just the cherry on top. Legalization will cost $6.3 trillion.

Cruz wants to increase the guest worker program fivefold flooding our saturated labor market even further. This is pandering to the Chamber of Commerce and the GOP's corporate paymasters.

Furthermore, there are polls out there that show that at least 52% of the Hispanic electorate are much less concerned with Amnesty than getting a job. Much, Much less concerned.

There are polls that show Hispanics favor Big Government and vote Democrat more than two to one. There are data showing that Hispanics use welfare to a greater extent than the general population. They are natural Dem constituents and no conservative message of lower taxes, limited government, and fiscal responsibility will resonate with them. The GOPe is delusional.

Cruz wants to increase the guest worker program fivefold flooding our saturated labor market even further. This is pandering to the Chamber of Commerce and the GOP's corporate paymasters.

No, it has been his position since he started campaigning for Senator.

Pandering to the Chamber of Commerce is what Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and Scott Walker (until lately when he figured out he didn't have a path to the nomination without the base) have been doing.

You will find articles on Ted Cruz's position and the fact he believes that America has always been a country that welcomes legal immigration and that he believes that this needs to be increased because he believes it is needed to supply a vacuum of STEM workers.

I've been in the IT industry for over 20 years. I have worked mostly for Fortune 500 companies but also start-ups and mom & pop shops. I have NEVER run into a scenario where I felt that H1-Bs were being used to replace American workers, only to supplement American engineers. During that whole time, I have never had difficulty finding work, and even now, there are too many opportunities to count for an experienced engineer.

You will find articles on Ted Cruz's position and the fact he believes that America has always been a country that welcomes legal immigration and that he believes that this needs to be increased because he believes it is needed to supply a vacuum of STEM workers.

There is no candidate that doesn't welcome legal immigration. The issue is how many should be admitted each year and what kind of skills we need. We don't need 1.1 million legal immigrants a year at a time when we have the lowest labor participation rates in 38 years. Native born Americans are losing jobs and having their wages depressed by mass immigration. Since 1990 we have taken in 30 million legal permanent immigrants. We have had the two largest decades of immigration in American history.

This is patent nonsense proffered by Silicon Valley and people like Zuckerberg. We produce more STEM workers than we need.

While employers argue that there are not enough workers with technical skills, most prior research has found little evidence that such workers are in short supply. This report uses the latest Census Bureau data available to examine the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. Consistent with other research, the findings show that the country has more than twice as many workers with STEM degrees as there are STEM jobs. Also consistent with other research, we find only modest levels of wage growth for such workers for more than a decade. Both employment and wage data indicate there is no shortage of STEM workers in the United States.

I've been in the IT industry for over 20 years. I have worked mostly for Fortune 500 companies but also start-ups and mom & pop shops. I have NEVER run into a scenario where I felt that H1-Bs were being used to replace American workers, only to supplement American engineers. During that whole time, I have never had difficulty finding work, and even now, there are too many opportunities to count for an experienced engineer.

Anecdotal information doesn't trump the facts.

Using the most common definition of STEM jobs, total STEM employment in 2012 was 5.3 million workers (immigrant and native), but there are 12.1 million STEM degree holders (immigrant and native).

Only one-third of native-born Americans with an undergraduate STEM degree holding a job actually work in a STEM occupation.

There are more than five million native-born Americans with STEM undergraduate degrees working in non-STEM occupations: 1.5 million with engineering degrees, half a million with technology degrees, 400,000 with math degrees, and 2.6 million with science degrees.

An additional 1.2 million natives with STEM degrees are not working — unemployed or out of the labor force in 2012.

Despite the economic downturn, Census Bureau data show that, between 2007 and 2012, about 700,000 new immigrants who have STEM degrees were allowed to settle in the country, yet at the same time, total STEM employment grew by only about 500,000.

Of these new immigrants with STEM degrees, only a little more than a third took a STEM job and about the same share took a non-STEM job. The rest were not working in 2012.

Overall, less than half of immigrants with STEM degrees work in STEM jobs. In particular, just 23 percent of all immigrants with engineering degrees work as engineers.

In total, 1.6 million immigrants with STEM degrees worked outside of a STEM field and 563,000 were not working.

The supply of STEM workers is not just limited to those with STEM degrees. Nearly one-third of the nation's STEM workers do not have an undergraduate STEM degree.

Wage trends are one of the best measures of labor demand. If STEM workers are in short supply, wages should be increasing rapidly. But wage data from multiple sources show little growth over the last 12 years.

Real hourly wages (adjusted for inflation) grew on average just 0.7 percent a year from 2000 to 2012 for STEM workers, and annual wages grew even less — 0.4 percent a year. Wage growth is very modest for most subcategories of engineers and technology workers.

n the past few months we have learned that hundreds Americans at Southern California Edison have been replaced by H-1B workers. A few hundred more Americans at Walt Disney World have been replaced by H-1B workers. Ditto at Northeast Utilities (now Eversource). Such replacements have been going on since at least 1994

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.