New citizens big in news again

Chairman Joe Garcia (standing) with two tables of volunteers waiting for new citizens to register to vote. June, Miami Beach.

Here’s the lead headline in Thursday’s New York Times (as seen in Florida, anyway): “Sharp Rise Seen in Applications for Citizenship.” First subhead: “A Sign of Hispanic Unease.” If this sounds familiar, check back to the June 22 post here about articles in the Los Angeles Times and Miami Herald about the flood of people taking the oath of citizenship at ceremonies in Miami Beach.

The NY Times piece has a related drift, focusing on a big jump in the numbers of people applying for citizenship. In May 115,175 applied, almost double the 65,782 last December.

What we’ve been doing in Miami-Dade County is to give vigorous help to the non-partisan groups that register new citizens to vote. Thousands of people concentrate in one place to attend these ceremonies, and all we have to do is be there afterward with a clipboard, smile and sign them up. Recently the ratio has strongly favored Democratic registration, sometimes more than 2 ½ to 1 over Republican signups – without overt persuasion.

The Times story adds detail to help explain this bonanza for our D side. It quotes a Californian who hadn’t considered becoming a U.S. citizen until he felt it was time to get politically active because his people were “not getting enough support.” Another said the same thing: “Now if I don’t like the way things are going, I can let the government know my opinion.”

This seems to be a new wrinkle in our country’s long history of immigration. In the past, haven’t most new immigrants concentrated on work and family and kept quiet politically? The NY Times report seems to find budding political activists among the newest citizens – people not willing to wait for the next generation of the U.S.-born to be active in politics. Is anyone surprised that they are unhappy with the way the Republicans are treating them?

So if someone stands up at the next county party meeting and urges that we redouble our efforts to register new citizens to vote, I’ll second that motion.

Beyond that, the NY Times story mentioned an initiative financed by the Illinois state government to help immigrants learn English and prepare for the citizenship test. It’s called the New Americans Initiative. Do we have something like that in immigrant-rich Florida?