US: Issues Start Rush to Citizenship by Hispanics

Tue Feb 5 16:59:04 UTC 2008

February 5, 2008
Issues Start Rush to Citizenship by Hispanics

By JULIA PRESTON

Spurred by the widespread crackdown on illegal immigration and by the
contentious tone of the national immigration debate, Latinos are gearing
up for Tuesdays voting with an eye toward making Hispanics a decisive
voting bloc nationwide in November.

After decades of relatively low Hispanic electoral participation, last
year more than a million legal Latino immigrants applied to become
citizens, with many saying they had done so to be able to vote. Since
then, newly naturalized Hispanic-Americans and citizens since birth have
turned out at voter registration fairs and political discussion groups,
and pressed relatives to register.

Last weeks primary in Florida, the first state with a big Hispanic
population to vote, gave a demonstration of their potential clout.
Hispanic voters, who were 12 percent of those voting  a strong turnout for
a primary  handed the decisive edge in the Republican contest to Senator
John McCain of Arizona over Mitt Romney, the former governor of
Massachusetts, according to exit polls by Edison/Mitofsky.

The two candidates were essentially even among white voters, with 33
percent for Mr. McCain and 34 percent for Mr. Romney. But Latino voters,
including Cuban-Americans and others, favored Mr. McCain by 54 percent to
14 percent for Mr. Romney. (Mr. McCain is known among Latinos for backing
an immigration bill offering legal status to illegal immigrants that was
defeated last year by conservatives from his party.)

On the Democratic side, Hispanics also contributed to the 16-point victory
in Florida of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York over Senator
Barack Obama of Illinois, with 59 percent of Latinos voting for her and 30
percent voting for him.

Hispanics regard voting this year as a strategy of self-defense, said
Sergio Bendixen, a pollster based in Miami. For many of them, Mr. Bendixen
said, the immigration debate has not been about immigration policy; it has
been about whether Hispanics belong in America.

Hispanics feel they need to vote to show they are a group that cannot be
abused or discriminated against, said Mr. Bendixen, who surveys Hispanics
for the Clinton campaign.

On Tuesday, 24 states that include nearly 60 percent of the nations
Hispanic electorate will be voting in primaries or caucuses. Voting that
day will be 7 of the 10 states with the highest percentages of Hispanics
among their voters, including New Mexico, where Hispanics constitute more
than one-third of the electorate (Democrats will caucus there);
California, where they are about 23 percent; and Arizona, where they are
about 17 percent.

The electoral energy has been channeled by a voter registration campaign
that has built new links between local Hispanic organizations and major
Spanish-language media, led by Univision, the national television network.

Both Republican and Democratic strategists say that strong immigration
enforcement and tough talk against illegal immigration by the Republican
candidates, with the exception of Mr. McCain, have antagonized Hispanics
in general.

The hard-line rhetoric on immigration is turning off all Latinos, said
Lionel Sosa, a Republican advertising executive in San Antonio who handled
Hispanic outreach in the presidential campaigns of Ronald Reagan and both
President Bushes. When people talk about building a wall and sending those
Mexicans back, it comes off as anti-Latino. We say: Youre talking about my
family, and I dont like it.

One newly energized and mobilized Hispanic voter is Silvia Benitez, 45,
who was born in Mexico but has been living in Arizona for more than a
decade. A community outreach worker in a federal preschool program in
Phoenix, Mrs. Benitez sat on the sidelines in the elections of 2004 and
2006 as a legal immigrant.

This election, she said, will be different. Among several recent
immigration measures Arizona adopted were the nations toughest sanctions
against employers who hire unauthorized workers, which took effect Jan. 1.

We dont feel safe as a community, Mrs. Benitez said. Some people judge you
now because of how you appear, your skin color, your English accent.

Frustrated that President Bush, in her estimation, had failed to push
through a bill to give illegal immigrants a path to become legal, Mrs.
Benitez applied for citizenship last year and took her oath as an American
in October.

With her measured voice and folded hands, Mrs. Benitez does not look like
a firebrand. But she is talking like one. It is about time for us to take
action and make a big movement of political change for Latinos, she said.

Another Phoenix resident, Silvia Trinidad, 20, is among a fast-growing
group of young Hispanics who have recently reached the voting age of 18. A
legal Mexican immigrant since she was a child, Ms. Trinidad is studying
criminal justice in college and working for the county sheriff as a
detention officer, hoping to become a police officer. She signed up last
fall to become a citizen.

Every vote counts, Ms. Trinidad said, and I will be able to vote against
the laws they are trying to make now against the immigrants.

Ricardo Tavizn, 29, a recently naturalized citizen who sells used cars in
South Phoenix, said he wanted to vote to challenge immigration enforcement
and to represent other immigrants who are not citizens.

Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of the Service Employees
International Union, said he was surprised by the response to the voter
registration campaign, called Ya Es Hora, Ve y Vota or Now is the time, go
and vote. .

In 42 years of organizing, Ive never seen this level of interest in an
election, said Mr. Medina, whose union is part of the drive.

After helping hundreds of thousands of legal immigrants apply for
citizenship last year, the campaign now aims to persuade six million
unregistered Hispanics to sign up to vote by November, he said. An
estimated 18.2 million Hispanics are eligible to vote.

That goal is plausible, Hispanic leaders said, because of the coordination
between community groups, and the newspapers of ImpreMedia, which include
El Diario La Prensa of New York, and Univision. The television network is
running five public service advertisements about the registration drive,
while the newspapers print guides to voter registration. The campaign
includes major groups like the National Association of Latino Elected and
Appointed Officials Educational Fund, a bipartisan organization, and the
National Council of La Raza.

Hispanic voters may cast deciding votes again on Tuesday. Nationwide,
Senator Obama has pulled to a tie with Senator Clinton, at 41 percent
each, according to a CBS News poll released Sunday. In Arizona, Mr. Obama
is ahead among Latinos, by 53 percent to 37 percent for Mrs. Clinton,
according to a poll by Mason-Dixon for McClatchy/MSNBC. But in California,
where Hispanics make up nearly one-fourth of Democratic voters, Mrs.
Clinton has a lead of 52 percent to 19 percent for Mr. Obama, a Field poll
conducted from Jan. 25 to Feb. 1 found.

Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama support giving legal status to illegal
immigrants. But she has far stronger name recognition among Hispanic
voters, polls show.

In the Republican races, Mr. McCain holds a wide margin of support among
Hispanics over Mr. Romney, who promised tougher action against illegal
immigrants. But Mr. McCain may pay for his Hispanic support by losing
ground with conservatives. On Monday, Roy Beck, the president of
NumbersUSA, one of the biggest groups battling illegal immigration, sent
out an e-mail alert that he said went to 1.5 million supporters, urging
them to vote against Mr. McCain.

Based on recent trends, a surge in Hispanic voter registration would
strongly favor the Democratic Party in November, since 57 percent of
registered Hispanics identify themselves as Democrats while 23 percent
align with the Republicans, according to a study in December by the Pew
Hispanic Center, a Washington research group. While immigration is a
litmus-test issue for many Latinos, it is not their only concern. Polls
show that the war in Iraq, the economy and education are also on their
minds.

With the voter registration drive just starting, its full force will not
be felt until November. But Hispanic leaders goals are clear.

It is not inconceivable, said Cesar Conde, executive vice-president of
Univision, that Hispanics will have the key role in electing the next
president of the United States.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/us/politics/05hispanic.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

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