The Liberal Newcomers: What Mass Migration from Third World Countries Will Produce

People come to America because it is a remarkable oasis of freedom, prosperity, and opportunity. Conservatives recognize that the principal reason for our unique abundance is our constitutional restraint on the power of government. As Thomas Jefferson said, “In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”

Maintaining this system requires the public to support limited government. In a new report, Eagle Forum details how immigration is fundamentally changing the electorate to one that is much more supportive of big government.

By itself, the annual flow of 1.1 million legal immigrants under the current system will create more than 5 million new potential voters by 2024 and more than 8 million by 2028. Congressional Budget Office projections indicate that under the Senate Gang of Eight’s S.744 bill, the total additional potential voters would rise to nearly 10 million by 2024 and 18 million by 2028. The influx of these new voters would reduce or eliminate Republicans’ ability to offer an alternative to big government, to increased government spending, to higher taxes, and to favorite liberal policies such as Obamacare and gun control.

There is nothing controversial about the report’s conclusion that both Hispanics and Asians, who account for about three-fourth of today’s immigrants, generally agree with the Democrats’ big-government agenda. It is for this reason that they vote two-to-one for Democrats.

The 2008 National Annenberg Election Survey found that 62 percent of immigrants prefer a single, government-run health-care system. The 2010 Cooperative Congressional Election Study found that 69 percent of immigrants support Obamacare. Pew also found that 53 percent of Hispanics have a negative view of capitalism, the highest of any group surveyed. This is even higher than the 47 percent among self-identified supporters of Occupy Wall Street.

The Pew Research Center has also found that 75 percent of Hispanics prefer a “bigger government providing more services,” and only 19 percent prefer a smaller government. Pew also reported that 55 percent of Asians prefer “bigger government providing more services,” and only 36 percent prefer a smaller government. So it’s no surprise that in 2012, 71 percent of Hispanics and 73 percent of Asians voted for Obama.

Even Republican emphasis on patriotism and national sovereignty is likely to alienate many immigrants. A Harris poll found that 81 percent of native-born Americans believe our schools should teach students to be proud of being American, compared with only 50 percent of immigrants who had become naturalized U.S. citizens. Only 37 percent of naturalized citizens (compared with 67 percent of native-born citizens) think our Constitution is a higher legal authority than international law.

While it seems that much of the Republican-party leadership has not actually looked at the policy preferences of immigrants, everyone else who has looked at the polls comes to the conclusion that significant majorities of immigrants and their children are big-government liberals. The New York Times’ Washington bureau chief admitted last year that “the two fastest-growing ethnic groups — Latinos and Asian-Americans — are decidedly liberal.” As University of Alabama political scientist George Hawley observes, “Immigrants are well to the left of the American public on a number of key issues.” He also makes clear that “liberalizing immigration will liberalize the U.S.” Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute points out that it “is not immigration policy that creates the strong bond between Hispanics and the Democratic party, but the core Democratic principles of a more generous safety net, strong government intervention in the economy, and progressive taxation.”

Immigration in general — not race — is the issue. The limited data for other immigrants — including Europeans and Muslims — indicate that they, too, generally hold views well to the left of the average American voter. In fact, as discussed in our new report, for reasons largely outside the control of conservatives, immigrants and their children gravitate to left-wing parties in almost all Western countries. The problem for conservatives is not race or ethnicity but immigration as such.

Another important conclusion of our report is that there is no evidence that amnesty or inviting more immigration will produce Republican votes and abundant evidence that it will produce more Democratic votes. After Ronald Reagan signed the 1986 amnesty, George H. W. Bush received only 30 percent of the Latino vote in 1988, seven percentage points less than Reagan in 1984.

Those supporting a big increase in legal immigration point to the successful assimilation of Great Wave immigrants (roughly 1880 to 1920). But that wave was followed by a slowdown of immigration from the 1920s to the 1960s, which allowed newcomers to assimilate, learn our language, and adapt to our unique system of government. Also, Great Wave immigrants arrived before the rise of the grievance industry and identity politics. Moreover, it still took decades before a significant share of these immigrants moved into the Republican column. In the meantime, Great Wave immigrants and their children provided much of the political support necessary to pass and sustain both the New Deal and the Great Society.

It is also the case that the Republican party’s continued support of mass immigration, let alone the increases in the Gang of Eight bill, is contributing to alienating the Republican base, at least 4 million of whom stayed home in 2012.

The generally liberal views of today’s immigrants do not mean they are bad people. Most immigrants are hard working and love their families, and many are religious. Many hard-working Americans not of recent-immigrant origin who are devoted to their families also want to expand government. Nevertheless, platitudes about immigrants’ being hard working does not make them conservatives when it comes to the size and scope of government.

While Republicans should do a better job of outreach, immigrants’ generally liberal views should not be trivialized as something that can be overcome by the right 30-second TV or radio ad or by running candidates with Asian or Hispanic backgrounds. These may help, but the political values and preferences of the immigrant community are sincerely felt and not easily changed.

Conservatives should appeal to immigrants without sacrificing our principles. One way to do this is to argue that defeating the Gang of Eight bill, with its amnesty and doubling of legal immigration, would benefit the nearly 60 million American citizens (many of them immigrants) who are not working. If employers really are having trouble finding workers, the private-enterprise solution should be to raise the pay! A tight labor market is the best anti-poverty program. A reduction in immigration would also take pressure off our already overloaded health-care system and schools, and it would facilitate the assimilation of immigrants already here.

Our new report makes clear that for conservatives, there is no issue more important than reducing the number of immigrants allowed into the country each year. If legal immigration is not reduced, it will be nearly impossible for conservatives to be successful on the issues we care about.

If the Republican party is to remain a party that is conservative and nationally competitive, it must defeat amnesty and any proposed increases in legal immigration. Further, we must work to significantly reduce the number of legal immigrants allowed into the country from the current level of 1.1 million a year. There is nothing inevitable about immigration. The level and selection criteria can be changed by Congress.

Looking at the political motivation of the groups pushing higher immigration and amnesty, it’s obvious that the Democrats promote large-scale immigration because it produces more Democratic votes. If the Republican party is to remain conservative and nationally competitive, it must defeat amnesty and proposed increases in legal immigration.

LOL, the Catholics do go to battle when the Catholic and immigration link is mentioned.

I am not a Catholic and I don't dispute at all that the Catholic church has been supporting and defending illegal immigrants and welcoming legal immigrants. You need to reread what I have stated. Your anti-Catholic obsession is getting in the way of understanding what I said.

No, a third of Hispanic immigrants are not Evangelicals.

PRRI, which released the report today at the annual conference of the Religion Newswriters Association, puts the current breakdown among U.S. Latinos as still majority Catholic (53%), but now one-quarter Protestant (25%) and one-tenth religiously unaffiliated (12%). Protestants are "nearly evenly divided" between evangelical (13%) and mainline (12%) Christians.

Compared to their childhood religious affiliations, Hispanics are significantly less Catholic but are in equal measure becoming more evangelical Protestant and more religiously unaffiliated.

Catholic affiliation has dropped by 16 percentage points (from 69 percent in childhood to 53 percent today). Evangelical Protestant affiliation has increased by six percentage points (from seven percent in childhood to 13 percent today), while the percentage of those claiming no religious affiliation has increased by seven percentage points (from five percent in childhood to 12 percent today).

Switching Sides: Latinos Ditching Catholicism For Evangelical Churches

Latinos make up the largest ethnic minority in the United States — 52 million, according to latest Census stats. The majority — two-thirds — are still traditionally Roman Catholic. But there's been a palpable shift from one generation to the next, with the newer ones being "born again."

Evangelicals now number about 20 percent of the Latino population, according to the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference."

I will amend my statement and say that one-third are Protestant and 20% Evangelicals.

None of your efforts do anything to change the facts, the left depends on their Catholic immigration, and always has. If you were a democrat would you want to end this mass importation of millions of Catholic voters, the immigrants that are literally overtaking America?

The countries sending immigrants to this country are not just Catholic countries. India, China, and Korea are not Catholic countries.

Immigrants man, immigrants, a third of immigrant Hispanics are not Evangelical.

The ones that become Protestant in America, start voting more like Protestants.

I don’t even know why you keep claiming 33% of Hispanics are Protestant when they aren’t, but from switching to illegals and amnesty, now you want to switch from immigration to Hispanics already in America.

You then tell us what we already know, not all immigrants are Catholics from Catholic nations, which still doesn’t change a single thing that I have said.

America, and states, are being overtaken by Catholic immigration.

For a guy who started out sounding anti-immigration, you sure are trying to cover up the basic facts, the left has always fought to flood America with Catholics, and the 1965 immigration bill was intended for that, and it is the primary fact of current 2014 immigration.

No one here thinks that all immigration is Catholic, or Hispanic catholic, but we all know that is the number one force of immigration.

Switching Sides: Latinos Ditching Catholicism For Evangelical Churches

Anti-immigration? I want to reduce legal immigration drastically, but that doesn't make me anti-immigration.

Catholics voted for Obama in 2012 50% to 48%. Catholics made up 25% of the electorate. Protestants voted 57% to 42% for Romney. They made up 53% of the electorate.

Latinos voted 71% to 27% for Obama. Asians voted 73% to 26% for Obama. Blacks voted 96% to 3% for Obama. Whites voted 59% to 39% for Romney.

Immigrants voted two to one for Obama. The fact is that the Left supports immigration period because immigrants vote overwhelmingly Democrat. And 87% of the 1.2 million legal immigrants who enter annually are minorities. Immigrants and minorities vote Democrat. It doesn't matter if they are Catholic or not.

The demographics of this country have been changing rapidly since 1965 mainly due to mass immigration and high minority birthrates. If we don't do something about curbing legal immigration, the Dems will soon be the permanent majority party. Phyllis Schlafly just published her study that shows the electoral impact of immigration.

The Liberal Newcomers Limit immigration or watch conservative efforts become irrelevant.

Yeah, The Catholic vote went for Obama both times, that is to be expected since the Catholic vote has only gone republican 5 times in history.

When the tens of millions of Catholics from the most Catholic nations on earth started flooding America after JFK’s immigration dream was realized, they kept up the tradition of democrat voting that the Catholic denomination’s members have always done, that won’t ever change.

Liberal Catholics from Catholic nations overwhelming America and joining the institutionalized Catholic liberalism in America, we all know what that means for out future, it has already moved America radically left, and this is only the beginning, the left counts on them to take Texas soon, like they did California.

Your ever larger and longer posts don’t change the facts that we all know.

If you plan to turn all of them into Evangelical Christians, that isn’t going to happen, at least not in time to save America.

Yeah, The Catholic vote went for Obama both times, that is to be expected since the Catholic vote has only gone republican 5 times in history.

50% to 48% is not a big difference, certainly not compared to the Latino, Asian, or black vote.

In 2012 the Catholic vote was a wash. The Jewish vote is far more heavily Democrat along with the Muslim vote. And atheists voted 70% to 26% for Obama. They constituted 12% of the electorate--more than the Hispanic vote.

You must really detest Catholics. Be that as it may, the most dominant variable is race and ethnicity, not religion when it comes to predicting voting behavior. CA became a solid blue state because of immigration.

The fundamental problem for Republicans in California is that immigration has created a new electorate. Massive legal immigration has changed California from a state with an electorate comprised mostly of U.S.-born whites, blacks, and well-established Hispanics to an electorate heavily comprised of Asian and Hispanic immigrants and their children who agree with the progressive agenda of state’s Democrats. As Gimpel observes, “past Republican votes in Congress in favor of a more generous immigration policy have unquestionably bolstered local Democratic majorities.” There is no question this is what happened in California.

Your ever larger and longer posts don’t change the facts that we all know.

The problem is that you don't know the facts. You are riddled with hatred and would rather ascribe the changing electorate to a religion rather than immigration and tribal politics. You don't need no stinkin' facts.

So now you have decided to try the personal attacks while defending immigration and the 1965 Immigration Act.

We have about 150 year history of the Catholic vote, and you know that they supported Obama both times, they have only supported the the republican 5 times in our history and only once against a sitting democrat, ever.

Before the 1965 JFK act, some polls say they voted GOP in 1956, that is it, period.

The Catholic denomination is a church denomination, not a race, and the fact that Hispanic Catholics are flooding america, won’t change the Catholic vote, it will remain democrat.

That is a problem for some of us, but not for you evidently, I really did not expect you to so fiercely defend mass liberal immigration.

California changed because of the Catholic vote, and the left hopes Catholics will overwhelm Texas as well.

“”During the 1920s and 1930s Los Angeles was a bastion of Anglo Protestantism, reflecting the values of Midwestern parishioners who had been carried to the Southland on the Southern Pacific Railroad. Well into the 1970s, Protestant denominational leaders enjoyed comfortable, influential ties with the city is still-strong “downtown business
establishment,” which itself was largely Protestant.

The Immigration Act of 1965, however, created the condition for a radically different religious future for the City of Angels-a future that would anoint Roman Catholicism as the area’s dominant religious group. Today Roman Catholicism is the single largest faith tradition in Los Angeles County, with 294 parishes and 3,631,368 adherents.
Among Christians, 71% are Catholics. Between 1980 and 1997, Roman Catholicism experienced a 36% growth.””

Your passionate pro-immigration, pro-democrat, pro-liberal, pro-Catholic vote defense, is baffling.

Yeah, the most quoted vote number on FR, in an election on the verge of depression, and one in which the Obama administration had been declared as at war with the Catholic church, the GOP got 59% of the Catholics who are white.

After 150 years, it is too little too late, and the Catholic denomination is not a race, it is a church, just as American Catholics voted democrat for 150 years, it will continue so.

Why are you so fierce to defend democrat voters? We are importing Catholic voters by the tens of millions, and their resulting offspring grow even larger.

The Catholic immigrants of today, will vote as the Catholics have always voted since they first started immigrating here in the 1840s.

The Kennedys knew what they were doing, if the American left could keep one single category of new voters coming in today, with hopes of keeping them as democrats forever, we all know who that would be, it would be the one born and bred to the Catholic institution.

So now you have decided to try the personal attacks while defending immigration and the 1965 Immigration Act.

Do you have a comprehension problem? Since when am I defending immigration and the 1965 immigration act? Read my post #11.

Most of the time it had to do with the fact that many of them were immigrants. And has the Jewish vote ever gone to Reps? Since 1916 the vast majority of the Jewish vote went to the Dems except for the 1920 election when 43% voted for Harding, 19% for the Dem Cox, and 38% for the Socialist, Eugene Debs. Obama got 78% and 69% of the Jewish vote in his two elections.

So why the animus towards Catholics?

The Catholic denomination is a church denomination, not a race, and the fact that Hispanic Catholics are flooding america, won’t change the Catholic vote, it will remain democrat.

The Hispanic vote will remain Dem. The white Catholic vote went for Romney and McCain in 2012 and 2008 respectively. Race and ethnicity trump voting in terms of the Catholic vote.

Your passionate pro-immigration, pro-democrat, pro-liberal, pro-Catholic vote defense, is baffling.

LOL. You are certifiable. I have said just the opposite. Give me some examples where I am any of those.

The white Catholic vote went for McCain in 2008.

After 150 years, it is too little too late, and the Catholic denomination is not a race, it is a church, just as American Catholics voted democrat for 150 years, it will continue so.

Does the same apply to Jews? Again, you are ignoring the data to come up with a conclusion you have already made. The majority of immigrants and minorities vote Democrat. They can be of any religion.

The Catholic immigrants of today, will vote as the Catholics have always voted since they first started immigrating here in the 1840s.

The Dem Party is the party of immigrants whether they are Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, or atheists.

Catholic is a church denomination, not a race, and 52% is too little too late after white 160 years, the Catholic vote is going to remain as it has always been

The Catholic vote has not been a vote of immigrants, it has been the same for almost 170 years.

You want to go on about Jews and claiming that somehow Catholics are, have been, and always will be “immigrants”.

We aren’t importing liberal Jewish voters by the tens of millions, the Jewish vote is not converting states and the democrat party is not banking on the Jewish vote to guarantee them control of the United States.

We are importing Catholic voters by the tens of millions, with no end in sight, they literally just walk over.

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