NDN in the News: Immigration

This past week has been a perfect example of the influence NDN is having in the immigration debate, reflected below by the number of press appearances we've been in:

Immigration Is the Question - June Kronholz, Wall Street Journal

Kronholz cites NDN and its new report, Hispanics Rising, to show how catastrophic the GOP's immigration strategy could be:

Hispanics made up 8% of the national vote in 2006, but their growing numbers and anger with the Republicans over such talk could mean electoral gold for the Democrats. NDN, a nonprofit Democratic think tank, predicts "there is no reasonable [Republican] road map to victory in 2008" if growing Hispanic populations tip several key states into the Democratic column.

Democrats sidestep immigration issue - David Lightman, Miami Herald

In his piece, David Lightman compares the opinions of the Democratic candidates to those of the Republicans in advance of the Nevada debate. He said of the Democrats, "Democratic presidential candidates are likely to sound similar Thursday night at their Las Vegas debate when they discuss illegal immigration -- if they talk much about it at all."

Democratic Presidential Hopefuls Take on Las Vegas - NPR

This audio interview features commentary between Tara Setmayer and Joe Garcia, Director of NDN's Hispanic Strategy Center. Joe discusses the Nevada Presidential debate, and other issues in the presidential debate focusing on immigration, with a specific focus on Tom Tancredo's extremely controversial TV ad.

Candidates Walk a Tightrope on Immigration - Michael Luo, New York Times

Michael Luo sets the distinction in the very opening of his piece:

THE Republican presidential candidates talk about illegal immigration as if they were in an arms race on toughness. The Democratic candidates have begun to tread more warily on the issue, as their debate last week in Las Vegas showed, but they still favor the language of accommodation over alarm.

It's very much worth mentioning that the piece acknowledges the existence of polling data that shows heavy support for Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Immigration issue could make or break presidential candidates - Alexandra Marks, The Christian Science Monitor

Alexandra Marks states early on what the positions of the various candidates are on immigration. She then moves swiftly into discussing the aftermath such positions could have on each party, even citing our new report, Hispanics Rising:

A recent report called "Hispanics Rising" done by NDN, a progressive Democrat-leaning think tank, notes there was "a dramatic reversal" of Hispanic voting patterns as a result. In 2004, 40 percent of Hispanics voted Republican, according to exit polls cited by NDN. In 2006, only 30 percent pulled the lever for the GOP.

The piece closes with an interesting quote: "If a Democrat does get elected, there will be a serious effort to come back to something that, ironically, won't be too different from what President Bush proposed [in 2006]." Interesting...