Trump prompts rush to citizenship
Article publisher:
Press Enterprise, Riverside, CA
Article date:
30 April 2016
Article category:
National News
Medium
Article Body:
Anti-immigrant [anti illegal alien] rhetoric from the campaign trail is encouraging Latino immigrants to become U.S. citizens with one goal in mind: to vote against GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump.
That energy is seen in citizenship workshops across Southern California.
Community organizers in the Inland area began holding naturalization drives during the workweek in order to assist hundreds with their citizenship applications. In Orange County, crowds have stood in line to receive citizenship assistance.
Federal numbers show an increase in naturalization applications in June 2015 when Trump announced his candidacy and advocated for tighter border security, saying some Mexican immigrants were “rapists and others came to the U.S. “bringing drugs.”
He also said he will build a wall along the Mexican border, vowing to make Mexico pay for it.
On Thursday, April 28, Latino protesters showed up in droves to protest Trump’s appearance in Costa Mesa. They waved Mexican flags and held signs that read, “Drump Trump” and “California Latinos are Majority ... Mr. Trump you’re fired!!!”...
In California, more than 850,000 people registered to vote between January 1 and March 31. That’s twice as much when compared to the same period in 2012, another presidential election year, according to Political Data...
This growth is largely Latino and Democrat, according to the company...
Among California voters, only 11 percent of Latinos have a favorable view of Trump, while 83 percent have an unfavorable perspective of him, according to a Field Poll released in April. The Field Poll is a nonpartisan California public opinion firm...
But at a Pennsylvania rally April 21, Trump said he will win the Hispanic vote because Latinos helped him win the Nevada caucuses...
Prop. 187, a 1994 law championed by Wilson would have barred [illegal alien] immigrants who came here illegally from services, including public education and non-emergency health care. Although it was never enacted, Latinos were energized by the battle against it...
Still, there are many Latino immigrants in the U.S. who are eligible for citizenship, but haven’t applied.
In fiscal 2015, 730,296 people became citizens nationally, an increase of 11 percent over the previous year.
About 8.8 million immigrants are eligible for citizenship, and some 2.7 million are Mexican. A 2013 Pew Research Center report found the naturalization rate of eligible Mexicans was only 36 percent, while the rate for all other legal immigrants was 68 percent...