Reports are pouring in from across the country that thousands of legal permanent residents from around the world have been inspired by Trump’s rhetoric to become citizens just so they can vote against him.
There are nearly nine million immigrant residents who are eligible to become a citizen but has yet do to so. Earlier this month, labor and immigrant rights groups have unveiled an unprecedented $15 million campaign to help as many of those people as possible become citizens and register to vote before the deadline in early October. They are focusing their efforts on the three states where there are enough new immigrant voters to tip the scales in the election: Nevada, Colorado, and Florida.
According to the U.S. Government, more than 800,000 people in Florida are immigrants eligible to become citizens, more than enough to decide an election in a swing state known for down-to-the-wire races.
As Trump continues his march toward the Republican nomination, groups across Florida are scrambling both to help thousands of immigrants naturalize, to register those who are already citizens, and to make sure they actually show up to vote. Tomas Kennedy, an organizer with the group New Florida Majority, said they are aiming to register 5,000 voters every nine weeks. “We’re going to African-American areas, Latino areas, areas where there’s traditionally low turnout in the elections,” he explained. “We’re targeting those people and trying to empower them and educate them on the issues.” “Hopefully Florida makes the right choice for the third time in a row,” he added, referring to President Obama winning the state in 2008 and 2012.
In Tuesday’s Presidential Primary in Florida, Kennedy will be voting for the first time in his life. An Argentine national who fled the county’s economic crisis with his family in 2000, he recently became a citizen through marriage, but his parents are still undocumented. He said that the GOP’s rejection of immigration reform and calls for border walls and mass deportations will not only hurt them in November, but for decades to come. “As an immigrant youth — and there are thousands and thousands like me — we are never going to forget how we were treated [by the GOP] and we are always going to vote against those people,” he said.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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