On Veterans’ Day we honor all of the men and women who have chosen to serve our country by joining the military. We pause to acknowledge the profound debt owed to those who have fought, sacrificed, and died to protect the United States of America, and to those service members currently defending our nation overseas and at home.
We include in our gratitude those members of the military who, though not born within our borders, demonstrate their love for and commitment to our country by serving in the armed forces.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reported last year that since September 2001, 74,977 members of the military have become U.S. citizens through naturalization ceremonies in places as diverse as Iraq, Afghanistan, El Salvador, and Thailand. With deep appreciation, NCLR recognizes our foreign-born service members who have decided to pursue the American Dream and their fullest potential as citizens.
We take pride in our veterans and in our servicemen and servicewomen pursuing citizenship. In 2010 NCLR partnered with Texas Affiliate the Mexican American Unity Council to host a special USCIS naturalization ceremony for several military personnel before the 2010 NCLR Annual Conference. You can view scenes from that ceremony in this video after the jump.
Thank you to all of our service members who have committed their lives to the defense of the United States of America. Your selfless example inspires and educates us all on the dedicated and courageous character of American citizenship.
Judith Santibanez is one of the youth exhibiting this Saturday.
Growing up in neighborhoods where green spaces are almost nonexistent and food choices amount to bodegas and takeout menus makes eating and living healthy much harder. Making the conscious decision to live a more balanced lifestyle is certainly commendable, but it only works when the necessary elements are available and accessible. For too many Latino communities, those elements are not in place and families are forced to choose from unhealthy options that only worsen the burgeoning obesity and diabetes rates among Hispanics, especially our youth.
It’s going to take Latinos working together to ensure that our kids live long, healthy lives. That’s why we’ve teamed up with Sodexo, ConAgra Foods, and two of our Affiliates, Alivio Medical Center and Gads Hill Center, to present Reflejos de mi comunidad: comida y estilo de vida (Reflections of My Community: Food and Lifestyle), a project designed to assess the barriers that prevent low-income, inner-city Latino youth from healthy eating and active living. The project also aims to engage parents in creating a healthy lifestyle for their whole family. And we’re starting this weekend!
On Saturday, we’re hosting a community event at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago. We’ll be showcasing a youth photo exhibit that Chicago teens have produced to illustrate the challenges they face in accessing healthy foods. You’ll have an opportunity to meet some of the students themselves and you’ll get to know more about what we do to improve the health of our Latino youth.
Check out the photos below of some of the other youth who will be exhibiting. Come see the rest on Saturday!
By Eric Rodriguez, Vice President, Office of Research, Advocacy and Legislation, NCLR
The Latino share of the U.S. electorate grew by over 20% this year. And with more than 850,000 Latino children turning 18 each year, it is likely to ascend to even greater heights one decade from now. Still, Latinos make up less than 10% of the national electorate. This has led some to dismiss the Latino vote as more hype than reality.
But it is not just mere numbers that make the Latino vote meaningful. Latinos are joining other voting blocs such as minorities, women, and youth to form a powerful coalition that promises to shape the national political climate for decades to come. Latino voters will exercise their political muscles in key battleground states and impact elections not by standing as a lone force but by aligning with other voters who share their views. Hispanic electoral growth should be welcome news to anyone who cares about creating jobs that allow a breadwinner to support a family with dignity, quality education and strong schools, healthy and safe communities, and fair immigration policies. Those are the issues that Latinos and most Americans care about. By working together, we can bring about the transformative change that our community and our country need.
This year, NCLR’s nonpartisan voter registration effort signed up over 95,000 new Latino voters. The work was done in partnership with many other organizations in the civil rights, labor, environmental, women’s, LGBT, and overall progressive communities. Many of these organizations also worked hard to turn out Latino voters.
Our partners have recognized that expanding the Hispanic electorate is crucial to achieving our shared goal of advancing social and economic justice. Think this is spin? In Tuesday’s exit polls Latinos showed deep alignment with minority, women, and youth voters in their support for presidential and Senate candidates, as well as in their perspectives on jobs, immigration, deficit reduction, and health care. United with other cohorts of voters, Hispanics are changing the national electorate—for the better.
The Huffington Post is reporting that Senate Democrats and White House officials will make a push for immigration reform as soon as the president is inaugurated.
A Democratic Senate source who spoke on condition of anonymity told The Huffington Post that the full push for reform won’t happen immediately, but will begin soon after Obama starts his second term. The Dream Act, which would give legal status to undocumented young people who came to the U.S. as children, will be included in the efforts, according to the source.
“This isn’t going to happen during lame duck,” the source said.
The Obama administration has been a bit coy on what it views as its list of second-term priorities, with much of the early focus being spent on fiscal and tax policies that will take effect at the end of the year. But one close Obama advisor, not authorized to speak on the issue, said it made eminent political sense to try immigration reform at the top of the second term. And the president himself seemed to preview his intentions of doing just that during an interview with Univision late in his campaign, saying it was among his biggest failures.
There are no concrete details yet as to what a proposal would look like, but this is certainly encouraging news. We’re ready for this fight. We hope you are, too.
By Janis Bowdler, Director, Wealth-Building Policy Project, NCLR
The exit polls have made it clear: the economy was far and away the most important issue for voters in this election. And the same is true for Latino voters. But an election eve poll released earlier today by NCLR and partner impreMedia shows that the economic issues which matter most to Hispanic voters differ in some ways from the economic priorities of other voters. This is something that the next president and Congress need to keep in mind as they develop their agendas for 2013 and beyond.
According to a recent NCLR report, Latino unemployment is still stuck in the double digits (11.5%). Meanwhile, 17% of Latinos are facing foreclosure or have already lost their home, 31% have no health insurance, and one in four is living in poverty. So it is no wonder that Hispanic voters went to the polls hungry for candidates who shared their views about how to improve the economy.
This thirst for an economic champion played out in battleground states, where more than half of Latino voters said that economic issues were their highest priority and the vast majority voted for President Obama. In Nevada, where Latinos make up an estimated 15% of the electorate, an impreMedia/Latino Decisions election eve poll of Latino voters found that 80% planned to vote for Obama. In this state, more than one-third of Latinos have lost their home or were in foreclosure proceedings.
In Ohio, where Obama won the coveted 18 electoral votes by less than 100,000 ballots, 30% of Hispanics live in poverty. The same election eve poll said that 82% of the Latino electorate was going to vote for the president in Ohio. Orlando, Florida, where Hispanic votes were a hot commodity, has the second highest rate of unemployment among Latinos (16.6%), twice than that of Whites. In the end, 58% of Latino Floridians voted for the president.
On deficit reduction, a plurality of Latinos believes in a balanced approach that includes tax increases and spending cuts (42%), while another 35% support raising revenue by asking the richest in our nation to pay more. As for health care, 61% of Latinos believe the federal government has a role to play in ensuring that people have health care and that the Affordable Care Act should stay in place.
This election was about jobs and the economy. But for the Latino community, that meant supporting candidates who offer balanced policies with shared responsibility and a clear role for the government to act.
The sleeping giant that is the Latino community was awakened this election and we have the numbers to prove it. Our civic engagement director, Clarissa Martinez de Castro, summed it best to NBC Latino today:
“Last night Latinos confirmed unequivocally that the road to the White House goes through Hispanic neighborhoods,” said Clarissa Martinez De Castro, from the National Council of La Raza (NCLR).
So, now where do we go from here? There’s ample work to be done, not the least of which is finding a fix for our broken immigration system. While it wasn’t the most important issue this election for Latinos, it was certainly a top concern. The president can attribute his victory yesterday to the Latino community, addressing immigration in the first year of his upcoming turn seems like it should be first on his list.
But, just like all Americans, Latinos are most concerned with curing the ailing economy and ensuring that everyone who wants a job has a job. We’re also want better education for our kids and we want health care to be as accessible as possible. We are ready to work with the Obama administration and the Congress to get all of these done.
By Clarissa Martinez-De-Castro, Director, Civic Engagement, NCLR
Today, one in every six people in our country is of Latino origin, representing the fastest growing segment of the American electorate. This Election Day, we will see approximately 12 million Latinos cast a vote—an increase of at least 23 percent over 2008 levels. In one of the closest elections in years, Hispanics are poised to make a difference in several key battleground states including Colorado, Nevada, and Florida. And with razor thin margins, the Latino vote could be the winning factor in states such as Virginia and Ohio.
However, Hispanic influence carries beyond just the Presidential election; the balance in the U.S. Senate hinges upon this election, and these races are enormous indicators of the growing influence of the Latino vote. For example, Latinos will have a decisive hand in the outcomes of the Arizona and Nevada races, and could also tilt the scales in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Virginia, to name a few.
But what are they voting for? Latinos this year are being especially pragmatic.They are prepared to roll up their sleeves to solve problems, and also see a role for government in that equation. Top-of-mind issues for Latino voters are jobs and the economy, which is fairly consistent across the years and not surprising given the impact of the economic and foreclosure crises on this community. Latino voters are looking at candidates for specific plans that address the employment needs of the hardest hit communities, that prioritize job creation, and that will prevent families from losing their homes. But the importance of immigration should not be downplayed; immigration policy has risen to a top issue for Latinos, particularly fueled by the anti-Latino sentiment underlying the immigration debate, and the impact on the civil rights of the community. And this election season, Latinos are looking at the tone and policies candidates have put forward on this issue.
A recently released Impremedia/Latino Decision Election Eve Poll of Latino voters underscores this pragmatic view. On deficit reduction, a plurality of Latinos support a balanced approach that includes tax increases and spending cuts (42 percent), with a close 35 percent supporting raising taxes on the wealthy. On health care, Latinos believe government has a role to play in ensuring people have access to care, and that the Affordable Care Act should stand (61 percent).
The Latino community is guaranteed to become a greater share of the electorate with each passing election. From now until 2028, an average of 890,000 Latino citizen children will turn 18 every year, adding 15.8 million potential voters to the electorate, along with another 10 million Latinos that are currently eligible to register, underscoring the essential need for voter registration strategies. That said, demographics alone will not gain Latinos the clout needed to advance economically and socially across the country. Latinos still must register, vote, and hold their elected officials accountable for achieving the social change and economic opportunity needed.
By Kathy Mimberg, Senior Media Relations Associate, Communications Department, NCLR
I arrived at NCLR’s office before 7:00 a.m. today, ready to volunteer for the “¡Ve Y Vota!” election hotline. It is the third presidential election in which I have helped man the phones at NCLR and take questions from voters throughout the U.S. Volunteers are bilingual and have access to online resources that make it easy to answer questions about polling locations, voter registration records, and acceptable forms of identification. If there are any calls about problems or intimidation at polling places, these are flagged to be addressed by legal and voting experts.
I was struck this morning by the great lengths many people are going to in order to vote in this election. We’ve heard about long lines in several states and I spoke to two women this morning who were determined to vote despite the challenges they face in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy; their stories are illustrative of how important it is to people that their voices are heard.
The scene at one south Florida polling place today.
Maria and Hellen called the hotline from different parts of New York City to ask where their polling places are located. I called each of them back a few times about where to go and how to confirm with the state government that their voter registration forms had been received. I was so impressed that these women were on dying cell phones in homes that had been without electricity for days, yet they persisted in contacting the hotline and the New York State Board of Elections in order to get the information they needed to vote.
The ¡Ve Y Vota! election hotline received an estimated 2,500 calls yesterday and we expect 5,000 more calls today. Every call represents an American embracing the right to vote and on the other end of the phone is a volunteer who is eager to help them do that.
I’m proud to work at NCLR and look forward to many more years of answering election hotline calls and helping my fellow citizens exercise their right to vote.
5:55 p.m. Did we mention we love Election Day? So do these folks!
The fantastic Hermilia Uribe on the phones in Las Vegas! In her election day red white and blue! She also brings in HEALTHY home made food for the staff every day, too!!
“You’re voice can change the outcome,” said Kathy Briones of Denver. Women’s right was a critical choice for her voting this cycle-equal pay as was the right to decide whether or not to take birth control.”
Voting is fun for the whole family in Denver; even the new borns!
These three voters in Jefferson County, Colo. shows the diversification and generational difference of voters in the county. Our friend in the middle voted for the first time today!
Jaime Oliver and his wife Yomaira Oliver exited the polls holding hands with a smile on each of their faces. As we approached them to ask why they voted, Jaime said, “Votamos, primero porque es nuestro deber civico…” and then his wife interjected, “Y segundo, porque es importante que los Latinos nos hagamos contar.” Translation: Jaime said, “First, we voted because it’s our civic duty…” And his wife quickly continued, “And second, because it’s important that Latinos make themselves count.”
5:15 p.m. We’ve got another update for you from the field.
Florida
It’s 82 and sunny. The Kendall precinct wait time is anywhere from 1-1.5 hours. You can probably expect an after-work surge.
In Orlando, it 73 and sunny. There have been reports on misinformation given out. We’re checking up on that for you. The upside? The wait time is less than hour at average-sized precincts in Osceola. The down side? At Precinct 532 in Orange County, a heavily Hispanic population, wait times are 2 hours and there is no parking.
Colorado
The weather in Jefferson County is 63 and partly cloudy. Northern Jefferson county is reporting long lines, while Southern Jefferson County is reporting short lines. In Arapahoe County, you can expect to be in line for about 1.5 hours. Our field coordinators are telling us, though, that despite the lines, people are excited about voting. That’s what we like to hear!
Pennsylvania
The weather in Philly is 45 Clear/Sunny. Spanish interpreters are still sorely needed, but the excitement level is high.
Nevada
It’s 81 degrees and sunny. We’re reporting few lines, but expect an after-work surge
5:00 p.m. Given the unprecedented levels of voter suppression that Latinos have had to contend with, it’s inspiring to see citizens doing all they can to ensure they vote. Our senior media relations associate, Kathy Mimberg, has volunteered with the “¡Ve Y Vota!” election hotline for three presidential elections now wrote in a blog post today about this level of commitment.
“I was struck this morning by the great lengths many people are going to in order to vote in this election. We’ve heard about long lines in several states and I spoke to two women this morning who were determined to vote despite the challenges they face in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy; their stories are illustrative of how important it is to people that their voices are heard.”
Read the whole post here. And, check out some shots of the “¡Ve Y Vota!” volunteers in action!
Our senior immigration legislative analyst, Laura Vazquez, has been hard at work all day long. Go, Laura!
Normally, Alicia Criado is busy advocating for better and fairer labor standards as a policy analyst for the Employment Policy Project. Today, she’s working the phones, answering questions and concerns! Thanks, Alicia!
Our Congressional Hispanic Caucus Insitute Policy Fellow Cristela Ruiz is getting some good experience working the hotline. Thanks, Cristela!
3:50 p.m.
A roundup of some of our favorite Instagram photos. Keep them coming!
Click on the images to enlarge.
3:20 p.m. Aida Ortiz is a 74-year-old resident of Philadelphia who was in need of a ride to the polls today. With the assistance of NCLR and her son, Joel Ortiz, she was able to vote today. Her reasons for voting? She’s concerned about the preservation of Social Security and other social programs.
Nice job, Aida and Joel!
1:35 p.m. The photos below were taken at the Osceola polling place in south Florida. As is the case at many polling places around the country, there are long lines to wait. Please hang in there, folks. Voting is your right and it can’t be taken away.
We know the situation can be tough, but there are some things you do to prepare for the waits!
Don’t let the wait discourage you; there is too much at stake for our community and for your family. Be proactive and make a plan.
It’s tough to get a parking space? Get your family and friends together and carpool to an early vote site
Do a little digging and find out what locations may have shorter lines and what lines are less congested
Bring an activity for the wait. Perhaps you can take that book you’ve been waiting to read or that friend you need to catch up with.
Read the rest of “Stay in Line” from our Miami-based senior communications manager, Camila Gallardo, here.
1:11 p.m. More photos from voters around the country.
“The Committee of Seventy election watchdog agency said one of the biggest problems in the city and suburban Philadelphia counties was poll workers telling voters that they needed to have voter ID before they could cast ballots.
“There’s a lot of honest misunderstanding, and maybe some not so honest,” said Zack Stalberg, the committee’s CEO.
“There’s a good deal of confusion.”
The Republican-controlled state legislature passed a law with strict requirements for photo ID before people could cast ballots.
But the courts suspended the law for this election. Most polls workers followed the basic rule, asking voters if they had voter ID. If they did not, they would be handed information on the plan to require identification starting next year.”
Colorado
And, finally in Colorado it’s sunny at 59 degrees. Kuds to the 1.7 million Coloradans who voted early. Those folks don’t have to worry about any wait times.
We’ll provide you more reports throughout the day.
11:27a.m.
More photos, this time from the Osceola Precinct. It looks like Latinos are really turning out to vote!
11:00 a.m.
We’re blogging the election today. We’ll be sharing stories, photos and other information as the day goes on. If you’re on Instagram or Twitter, tag your Election Day photos with #LatinoVote to be part of our photo album.
And, if you haven’t voted yet and don’t know where to vote, you can always text ‘POLL’ + your address to 62571. If you experience any problems at the polls, do call our voter hotline at 888.839.8682.
Our first photo comes from the Miami West Kendall polling place patiently waiting to vote. Don’t get discouraged folks. Just stay in line.
