About Me

My photo
Beverly Hills, California, United States
Eli Kantor is a labor, employment and immigration law attorney. He has been practicing labor, employment and immigration law for more than 36 years. He has been featured in articles about labor, employment and immigration law in the L.A. Times, Business Week.com and Daily Variety. He is a regular columnist for the Daily Journal. Telephone (310)274-8216; eli@elikantorlaw.com. For more information, visit beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com and and beverlyhillsemploymentlaw.com

Translate

Monday, August 26, 2013

Politics Counts: Two Big States' Big Split on Immigration

Wall Street Journal
By Dante Chinni
August 24, 2013

In the current immigration debate, California and Texas look like very similar terrain. The two electoral behemoths are both “border states” familiar with the issue. And in both Hispanics make up the exact same percentage of the population according to the latest Census numbers: 38.2%.

And yet, as the debate continues, the issue is starting to play out very differently in them.

In California, at least four Republican U.S. House members have now come out in favor of a pathway to citizenship in the current immigration reform fight. In Texas, two Republican House members were part of the “gang of eight” legislators that favor compromise legislation that includes a pathway to citizenship, but others have been relatively quiet or come out strongly against a pathway. And Texas’s two GOP senators have taken strong stances against a pathway to citizenship.

It may be tempting to simply write off any differences to the partisan divide between the two states – California is deep blue and Texas is ruby red – but the numbers show a more complicated demographic picture. The 38.2% Hispanic population number in the two may be dead even, but the spread of those populations is very different, and it looks to be playing a big role in how their delegations see the immigration issue.

You can see the differences in the states in simple maps of their Hispanic residents. Look here at the line of blue that runs through California from the south to the north, representing the Hispanic population. Now look at this map of Texas’s distribution and you see concentrations primarily based along the border and in the west of the state.

Those distributions have a big affect on the make-up of California’s and Texas’s congressional delegations.

For more information, go to:  www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com

No comments: