Naturalized voters critical in future California elections, study says

WASHINGTON — Naturalized citizens in the San Joaquin Valley could decide future elections, immigrant advocates conclude in a revealing report issued Thursday.

Nearly one in six voting-age residents in some Valley congressional districts are foreign-born naturalized U.S. citizens, the new report shows. This is twice the national average and could shape Valley politics for years to come.

“We have the ability to carry an election,” Tuyet G. Duong, the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, declared Thursday. “We’re a force to contend with.”

Duong is senior staff attorney with the Asian American Justice Center, which helped release the new immigrant voting study. The report is apparently the first to tally both naturalized citizens and the children of immigrants, a combined population the report’s authors dub the New Americans.

“This new immigrant population is just exploding,” said research analyst Rob Paral, the report’s chief author.

Source:
Naturalized voters critical in future California elections, study says
mcclatchydc.com