Despite deportations, Obama trounces Romney, Perry in Hispanic voter polls

Deportations of undocumented persons -- most of them from Latin American nations -- have hit record levels during the Obama administration. Since 2009 they have averaged over 300,000 per year, a rate almost twice that of the average during the second Bush administration. This year the United States deported nearly 400,000 people, and 72% - almost three out of four - were Mexicans. Read here for more details: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/10/us-deports-record-number-of-latinos-in.html.

But apparently none of this has had much of an impact upon likely Hispanic voters in the upcoming U.S. presidential election. A recent Pew Hispanic Center poll says that in a race against Republican candidate Mitt Romney, Barack Obama would win by 68-23%. And in a projected run against Texas gov. Rick Perry, Hispanic voters selected Obama 69-23%. Respondents were also asked how they felt about increased deportations during the Obama administration. Not surprisingly, 59% had a negative opinion. But plainly, there was no carryover of that disapproval to their presidential preference.

Sixty-seven percent of survey respondents identified their party affiliation as Democrat, and 20% as Republican. On the question of which party has more concern for Hispanics, 45% said Democrats do, while 12% replied that Republicans do.

Some political experts argue that no candidate can win the White House without capturing 40%+ of the total Hispanic vote cast, a number which probably does not bode well for any of next year's Republican hopefuls. In the 2008 presidential election, Obama captured 67% of the Hispanic vote compared to Arizona senator John McCain's 31%. Based upon the Pew poll, there is no reason to believe anything will be different next year.

The poll of 1,220 probable Hispanic voters in the United States was conducted between November 9 and December 7, in English and Spanish, and has a 3.6% margin of error, says the organization.

[Note: Based upon the 2010 census, about 50.5 million persons of Hispanic ancestry live in the United States, representing 16% of its population. Of these some 63% are Mexican, or about 31.8 million people as of last year. There are 11.2 million undocumented persons in the United States, of whom 81% are Hispanic. The government says that an estimated 6.5 million Mexicans have no lawful documentation. They represent 20% of all Mexicans in the U.S., and over half of undocumented persons of all nationalities in the United States].

What's the "Republican plan" for U.S. immigration woes?: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/09/immigration-and-us-republican.html.

U.S. owes its strength to immigrant labor, says Felipe Calderón: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/10/us-owes-its-strength-to-immigrant-labor.html.