GOP decline linked to immigration rise
BY CINDY CARCAMO
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
As immigrants surged into Orange County in the last two decades, the number of poeple voting for Republican presidential candidates in one of the state’s most conservative regions dropped by nearly 18 percent – to just over 50 percent, according to a report by the Center for Immigration Studies.
The correlation between increased immigration and what the study called the Republican “demise” mirrors a nationwide trend in counties, according to the report released Friday by an anti-illegal immigration group, which seeks to curb overall immigration.
Gimpel, a government professor at the University of Maryland, said the term “immigrant” is used in the study to describe both legal immigrants and those who are in the country illegally.
“There is an irony in that even though the Republican electorate has been undermined over time by this immigration flow, they do have a business constituency which seems committed to keeping it wide open,” Gimpel said. “There are a lot of influential donors who are in the business community who have influence over the GOP’s policy making in this area and they benefit from this flow of immigrants
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