Most articles on immigration talk about the number of people arriving in the U.S. “Thousands Eager to Vote Won’t Become Citizens in Time” (nytimes) instead looks at the number who are becoming citizens:
In the last year almost 940,000 legal immigrants applied to become citizens, a 23 percent surge over the previous year.
If we want to see what kind of politician will be successful in the U.S. ten years from now should we look at what kinds of politicians are successful today in the countries from which immigrants are arriving? Or are there specific things that American politicians can promise immigrants in order to gain their votes?
They left that country because they weren’t happy there, mostly because of politics and economics. I don’t think you can expect them to vote for the opposite, either, whatever that may be. More likely, you can expect, en masse, they will vote as their fellow expat countrymen have for the past decade or two.
As David says, by your reasoning Miami ought to be a hotbed of pro-Castro sentiment.
Immigrants tend to be younger, so they care more than the average American voter about things like school funding, and of course oppose moves to restrict family-based immigration quotas.
The current waves of immigration have no historical precedent. They are cashing in on sweet, sweet freebies. Go to the right bodegas and watch them package up blue plastic barrels of SNAP purchased goods to be shipped back home.
Pre Hart-Cellar Act most people who immigrated to America eventually went home. Less than a third of Italians decided to stay and take citizenship, for example. Most were here to make a buck and go home again with a wad of cash. That’s all changed on account of the endless taxpayer funded free goodies for women with kids, citizen or not.
We are on the edge of fiscal crisis and the goodies are about to dry up. Most of these people who’ve shown up lately will be gone soon.