Sunday, December 19, 2010

DREAM Act and Republicans

Senate supporters for the DREAM Act could not get the necessary 60 votes to invoke cloture, so once again it has to wait.

Matt Barreto (and anyone interested in Latino politics should look at the Latino Decisions blog) argues that immigration is so important to Latinos that this will definitely hurt Republicans who voted no, given 1) the fact that they need Latino votes to win elections; and 2) that immigration--and the DREAM Act in particular--is extremely important to Latino voters:

While much of the last two years was spent addressing the issues of health care reform, and the economy, to Latino voters a third issue loomed as being equally important for the President and Congress to address – immigration reform.


I am not entirely convinced.  An October Pew Hispanic poll (which I discussed here) had Latino registered voters ranking immigration as only the fifth most important issue for the 2010 congressional elections.

I would also argue that an entirely likely scenario is that Latino voters will stay home rather than punish Republicans.  After all, plenty of Democrats are also voting against immigration reform, and the Obama administration is showing itself as incapable of doing much beyond enforcement.

2 comments:

Anonymous,  11:59 AM  

This also assumes that "Latino voters" are a homogenous group, which you have argued is not the case. Like most issues, Latinos do not form a nice voting bloc on immigration as many believe.

Pablo 2:43 PM  

Anonymous,

If not for Cuban-Americans (the older kind) in Miami, Latino voters would be very close to being homogenous. If they are not yet, they are fast becoming so. You have to remember that as little as four years ago, the Republicans had a President who supported immigration reform. Now, there are only a few voices (like his brother, Jeb) who are trying to turn the tide. The more Republicans blast immigrants, the more homogenous Latino voters are going to become.

  © Blogger templates The Professional Template by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP