In a report produced by the Pew Hispanic Center, Latinos do not think that immigration is a top priority on the agenda of the incoming Obama administration.
In a survey of Latino adults, only three in ten said that immigration is an “extremely important” issue facing the incoming Obama administration, placing it sixth on the list of seven policy priorities. The top issue among Latinos is the economy, for which 57% said it was “extremely important”. The survey stated that the issues that concerned Hispanics were education, health care, national security, the environment, immigration, and energy policy in that order.
Although immigration reform has long been a major issue in Congress and a longtime concern for Latinos, it currently is not at the top of the agenda for the Obama administration according to Hispanics,. Nevertheless, Hispanics by and large are optimistic about the incoming Obama Administration. More than 72% say they expect Obama to have a successful first term. Looking back to the Bush administration, more than 54% of Latinos say the failures of the Bush administration outweigh any of its successes; compared to 64% of the general U.S. population.
The report also examines the ways Latinos were involved in 2008’s presidential election. According to the results of the survey, 74% of Latinos were interested in this past year’s election, a significant increase from the 2004 election. Also, more than 51% of Latinos said they participated in at least one political activity other than voting: 36% researched candidates on the Internet, 26% tried to persuade someone to vote for a particular candidate, and 18% say they wore clothing related to the political campaign. In addition, 9% reported donating to political campaigns, as well as5% said they volunteered or worked for a political candidate.
Television was the most popular news medium in the 2008 presidential campaign among Latinos. More than 82% report obtaining most of their information on the election through television news. 18% of Latinos relied on newspapers, and 10% tuned into the radio. 33% of Latinos got their news in English, while 23% in Spanish, and 44% referred to a combination of English and Spanish news.
If Latinos are not interested in immigration…then it is highly unlikely that Obama will do anything to reform our current immigration policy–at least this term. Latinos have realized that immigration and economics are one and the same, if our economy is bad, we can’t expect to be more lax about our immigration laws because what good does it do to have a even bigger workforce? On the other hand, a reform would bring millions of dollars in revenue with all the paperwork involved (in USCIS, etc).