He pointed to a number of reports and projections on the Hispanic vote: the National Association of Latino Elected Officials estimates that 9.2 million Hispanics will cast their ballots in Tuesday’s election, compared to 7.6 million in 2004.
He noted that record numbers of naturalization applications — 1.4 million last year — have boosted the number of immigrants eligible to vote this year.
Cecilia Muñoz, Senior Vice President of the Office of Research, Advocacy, and Legislation at the National Council of La Raza, said that if Congress and the new president fail to push for comprehensive immigration reform then the issue of millions of undocumented immigrants living in the United States will continue to crop up in less desirable forms.
“If you look at the domestic policy debates that have gone through the Congress, there’s been some kind of immigration battle on every single one of them,” Muñoz said, citing recent legislation on housing, education, the foreclosure crisis, the economic stimulus package and the reauthorization of the State Child Health Insurance Program — all of which included a debate to deny benefits to undocumented immigrants.
“It’s going to become a fuel for what is usually a pretty ugly and not particularly constructive debate … As long as the immigration issue is hanging out there, it’s going to infiltrate the public policy debate — and not in a particularly constructive way.”
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