Pew Report: Most immigrant voters are from Mexico and Asia

ANALYSIS

Immigrant voters, who make up 21% of California's eligible voters could swing the Primary election on Super Tuesday.
Of this group, voters from Mexico and the Philippines make up the bulk of the foreign-born electorate, according to a new study by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.

The Pew report, released Wednesday (Feb. 26), says that nationally, Mexico, the Philippines, India, China, Vietnam, Cuba, Korea, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and El Salvador, in descending order, make up the top ten origin countries of the immigrant electorate.

In fact, most eligible immigrant voters, as can be surmised from Pew's data, are from either Mexico or  Asia.

Taking the top ten countries as a sample, Latin American and Caribbean countries provide 5.9% of all immigrant voters. But the surprise is that immigrant voters from Asian countries, make up 5.3% of the total, a fact that most mainstream media and pollsters seem to overlook when reporting sample surveys that are usually broken down to only white, black and Hispanic.

Immigrant eligible voters born in Mexico account for 16% of all foreign-born eligible voters, far below their 25% share among all immigrants. By contrast, immigrant Filipino eligible voters make up 6% of foreign-born eligible voters even though they account for onl 4% of all U.S. immigrants. The disparity suggests that Filipinos become naturalized citizens at a faster rate than immigrants from Mexico.

Immigrant voters will play a critical role when Californians cast their ballots on Super Tuesday, March 3. Out of California’s 25.9 million eligible voters, 21% (5.5 million) are foreign born, the highest share of any state through Super Tuesday and in the nation, reports Pew.

At stake is California's 416 delegates, the largest number in the nation and the grand prize for the Democratic candidate who is paying attention to the state's demographics. The state's first-generation electorate could seal a Bernie Sanders nomination or it could give hope to any of Sanders' rivals.]

As of Wednesday evening, according to FiveThirtyEight, Sanders has a commanding lead in California with 30.2% of voters favoring her. 

The real contest, it appears, is for second place. Elizabeth Warren's strong performance in the last two debates has placed her in a virtual tie  with 13.2%  vs. Joe Biden's 13.1%. 

Mike Bloomberg, who has had the state for himself with a barrage of media since January, but all that spending has earned him 11.4%; followed by Pete Buttigeig, 9.5%; Amy Klobuchar, 4.8%; Tom Steyer, the lone Californian, 3.1%; and Tulsi Gabbard, 2%

Nationally, first-generation immigrants make up about 10% of eligible voters, or more than 23 million eligible voters, a record high according to Pew.

On and before Super Tuesday, California along with Texas (1.8 million immigrant eligible voters), Massachusetts (619,000), Virginia (550,000), North Carolina (307,000) and Nevada (293,000) four-in-ten of the nation’s immigrant eligible voters will have cast their primary ballots or expressed their caucus preference. 

Considering the critical role immigrant voters -- or first-generation US citizens -- will play on Super Tuesday and during the rest of the primary season, immigration issues have barely been mentioned in the ten debates held so far among Democratic candidates.

As first-generation Americans, their ties with their country of origin are still strong and many are likely petitioning for more family members to immigrate to the US but Donald Trump immigration policies seem to thwart or lessen the importance of family reunification, the basis of US immigration policy since 1965.

One of the other avenues for possibly becoming US citizens is through the special visas for refugees and students who can change their status while in the US. Again, the Trump administration seems to be placing more and more hurdles for applications from these groups.

Preferred workers with H-1B visas who work in professions in which the US lacks workers such in the medical field or high tech industries find the waiting lines longer and longer as the Trump administration cut down the number of visas issued.

Although separate candidates have explained their positions on immigration on their websites, the debates seem to be a major source of information for many voters. Yet moderators -- most of whom are based in the East Coast -- in the 10 debates have seemed to not realize the importance of the topic of immigration for this group of voters, who will help choose the Democratic nominee to run against the incumbent resident of the White House.

Immigration has been a flashpoint between Democrats and Donald Trump’s administration since the moment he took office and declared a Muslim Ban and it will likely be the centerpiece of his presidential campaign to fire up the xenophobic tendencies of his base and to attract as many racists and white supremacists he can get.

Democrats can counter Trump's supporters' zeal by paying attention to the immigrant voters' concerns about family reunification, deportation, the separation of babies from their parents and bans or limitations on travel from certain countries.

Pew's findings may be surprising, or even impressive, but they will mean nothing if this segment of voters don't bother to vote because r they feel there is no difference between Trump and the Democrats or if they feel their concerns are being ignored.

CORRECTION: Feb. 27, 10 a.m. Earlier versions of this blog had an incorrect number of delegates for California.