The Effects of Hispanic Immigration

San Antonio Express-News & El Paso Times ^ | 01/24/02 | Carlos Guerra, Louie Gilot, and AP

[ThJ1800]

Will new immigrant voters be swinging 2002 state elections?
By Carlos Guerra, San Antonio Express-News, 01/24/2002
As Texas' 2002 election cycle kicks into gear, campaign professionals in both parties are nervously eyeing a mysterious voter group...Before 1990, Mexicans were among the foreigners least likely to seek naturalization, but during the '90s this began to change. Not long after large numbers started winning their amnesty, they became eligible to begin the naturalization process.

Group plans Spanish voter guide
By Associated Press, El Paso Times, 01/24/02
SAN ANTONIO -- For the first time, the League of Women Voters of Texas plans to issue a guide to statewide candidates written entirely in Spanish for the March 12 primaries. The league, which estimates more than 1 million Texas voters use the guides every election, has printed portions of its traditional question-and-answer guide in Spanish for several years.

Number living illegally in U.S. doubles in '90s
Louie Gilot, El Paso Times, 01/24/02
The number of undocumented immigrants in the United States more than doubled during the 1990s, new Census Bureau estimates show. Census estimates show that the number of undocumented immigrants in the United States rose nearly 5 million during the decade, to 8.7 million in 2000. Of that total, almost 3.9 million, or 44 percent, were from Mexico.

[ThJ1800]

These three articles, eventhough they come from two different papers, are all related and tied together, therefore I posted them all together. Hopefully this will produce some good discussion on the role of Hispanic voters and the Republican Party.

[umgud]

In not too many more election cycles, Hispanics will be politically dominant in CA,AZ,NM and TX. I am going to speculate that they will also be democrat to probably 70+%. Texas Hispanic republicans will probably outnumber CA Hispanic republicans, but on balance, most Hispanics will be democrat.

[Doctor Stochastic]

I am going to speculate that they will also be democrat to probably 70+%.

So, should one whine (con acedero), or try to convert them?

[traditionalist]

Neither. One closes the border so more do not come.

[umgud]

Convert them at every opportunity. Hispanic businessmen should be easier to convert than the working masses. I will however, stand by my speculation/prediction.

[livius]

I think you're probably right, thanks to the Demo machine that has virtually been snapping them up at the border. However, I do think that most Hispanics, especially the increasing number of immigrants who are middle class (fleeing from Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, etc.) tend more towards Republican or at any rate, conservative, values than towards whatever it is the Democrats use in place of values.

Aside from their conservative and family oriented social values (before they get into the clutches of the Demo welfare machine, at least), many Hispanics are small-business oriented in a way that Republicans should capitalize on. That is, their dream is not uniformly that of going off and becoming, say, a doctor or a lawyer, but running their own business of some sort. This can range from anything to a small grocery store to their own stock brokerage.

I think that approaching Hispanics on the level of their business sense and initiative, which they have but often cannot use in their own countries because of corruption, bureaucracy and instability, is the way to go. We should offer a dynamic, positive message, something that contrasts with the Demo "pity the poor wetbacks on welfare" approach.

[DoughtyOne]

I read an article the other day that addressed the comparison of votes new immigrants gave to Bush vs Gore. In that article it stated votes went 15 to 1 for Gore. The article is here on the forum somewhere.

[DoughtyOne]

That whine comment was way out of line. How do you suggest we convert them when the Democrats assure they will get free medical care, free education, drivers licenses, housing subsidies, food stamps and a whole host of other handouts? Do you suggest we outbid the Democrats? That's about the only valid conversion tool I can see.

[Doctor Stochastic]

The Hispanics in the New Mexico area have been here longer than the US has been a country. The Anglos are the newcomers. There is a strong Republican presence but sometimes the Hispanic vote is just written off which can be seen as a snub.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Do you suggest we outbid the Democrats? That's about the only valid conversion tool I can see.

Are your values so weak that you can't sell others on them? I don't think so. Those who are seriously interested in converting people just have to work harder. It's a personal thing.

[DoughtyOne]

Look, you can't win people with arguements of smaller government is better when they're hungry, and the other side promises food stamps. You can't tell them that it's wrong to cut the military when somebody else offers to help them put a roof over their head if they'll vote for them. You can't explain that invasion of privacy is more important than free healthcare. I appreciate your arguement, but our arugements stand the test when all else is equal. Not being equal the periferal issues will win over solid government every time. That's why I've tried to point out that allowing poverty stricken people to flood our nation was a very bad idea.

[Tailback]

There's a Black guy in my National Guard unit that I think I have almost converted to either Republican or Libertarian. The thing that really blew him away was the Lyndon Johnson quote after he passed the "great society" legislation. It's not impossible, although I must confess that this guy wears cowboy boots and chews tobacco.

[traditionalist]

Hispanics whose families have been here for multiple generations already tend to vote Rpublican. It's the newcomers who are trouble. They're already hooked on welfare public money and can't be converted. That's why we have to keep more from entering the country. That, and that alone can save the GOP.

[Caipirabob]

FREEPERS: I say we all find ways to educate and recruit the Hispanics & BLACKS

The fastest way is marraige. Assimilate them into our culture an society as quickly as possible. Raise the children in a conservative environment. I'm not kidding, I live my life by this advice.

..and let me tell you man, Latina women are HOTTIES!!!

[FITZ]

Exactly. Here's another article that shows how likely many of the immigrants have any kind of savings, making it very likely they'll need government assistance to make it through a job layoff. Sending billions back to Mexico will end up costing the US taxpayer in the end ---of course.

Hispanics hit hardest by sluggish economy

David Peregrino El Paso Times

Hispanics will have a tougher time than others recovering from the nation's recession and may not see their employment or incomes recover until 2004, according to a Pew Hispanic Center report released Thursday.

Researchers found that Hispanics take longer to recover from a depressed economy because of limited English skills, education and job experience. Hispanics are also concentrated in manufacturing and retail jobs -- those hardest hit by this recession.

"The forecasts of a long, slow recovery are especially troubling for a population that includes many millions of young people and recent immigrants still establishing their place in the U.S. labor market," said the center's director, Roberto Suro, in releasing the report, "New Lows from New Highs."

Within the diverse Hispanic population, those with roots in Mexico, who make up 58 percent of all U.S. Hispanics, are suffering the worst. Unemployment among that sector is 7.9 percent, compared with 7.3 percent for other Hispanics.

The report's findings don't bode well for El Paso, where the population is nearly 80 percent Hispanic.

Recently VF Jeanswear, which operates three factories in El Paso County, announced it was laying off 1,238 employees.

Juan Dominguez, a 48-year-old father of two, said he has been looking for work since he was laid off in October from his clothing manufacturing job at Correa Cutting in Central El Paso.

"I've been submitting a lot of applications at clothing factories. They always say they'll give me a call, but they never do," he said. "I see a lot of my friends going through the same things."

The study -- the first from the newly created Washington-based research group -- also found that Hispanics have limited savings, making surviving a slumping economy difficult. Federal data show that half the nation's Hispanic families had $1,800 or less in stock, retirement, savings or checking accounts. The average for all U.S. families was $19,820.

Dominguez said he never saved money, just lived paycheck to paycheck.

[FITZ]

The Hispanics in the New Mexico area have been here longer than the US has been a country.

Which makes them NON immigrants. Hispanic American and illegal immigrant are two different concepts. I can't think of very many --if any Hispanics in this area who believe in unrestricted immigration and not many who have lived here for generations (some descended from Spaniards not Mexicans) consider themselves to be from Mexico.

[Luis Gonzalez]

"The Hispanics in the New Mexico area have been here longer than the US has been a country."

Actually, Hispanics settled in this continent long before Anglos. St. Augustine is the oldest city in the US.

"Which makes them NON immigrants. Hispanic American and illegal immigrant are two different concepts."

It may make them non-immigrants, but it doesn't allow them the use the term American, without the hyphen?