Citizenship Matters: How Children of Immigrants Will Sway the Future of Politics
By Manuel Pastor, Justin Scoggins, Vanessa Carter, and Jared Sanchez, and the Center for American Progress
July 24, 2014
This report released by the Center for American Progress and the Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration detailed just how important the actions of both parties and the president on immigration reform are to one of the fastest-growing segments of the electorate: the children of immigrants. The U.S.-born children of unauthorized immigrants alone will be able to cast 11 million ballots over the course of the next five presidential elections, and they will be watching to see how both parties address immigration.
The effect of today’s divisive immigration politics may be even greater than numbers previously analyzed, as historical evidence and current polling point to the fact that immigration is a touchstone issue in voting preferences for the children of all immigrants.
The report asserted that political inaction on immigration reform fails to recognize the mixed-status realities of many families, eliminates the potential financial benefits to these families and to society at large, and is likely to entrench a second generation against political actors perceived as holding up immigration reform progress.
