An estimated 3.5 million immigrants have become US citizens since the 2020 presidential election and could influence the outcome of elections, including the presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
Immigration is one of the main issues in the US presidential campaign due to record levels of illegal border crossings during the administration of President Joe Biden, which has processed new citizenship applications of legal immigrants much faster than the Trump administration.
According to an analysis by the U.S. Immigration Policy Center, based on estimates from Department of Homeland Security (DHS) data, about 3.56 million immigrants have added to the voting pool since the 2020 election. newsweek.
"Many immigrants are naturalizing and expressing a desire to vote, which means their turnout rate could be higher than usual," Manuel Pastor, director of the Equity Research Institute at the University of Southern California, told Newsweek.
"Also, they are naturalizing at a time when immigration has become a hot issue," he claimed, the Telegraph reports.
The largest number of new naturalizations was in America's most populous states: California, Florida, New York and Texas - which are not among the states where the outcome of the election is expected to be decided.
But there were also a significant number of new naturalizations in key states where Trump and Harris are close to securing the Electoral College votes they need for the presidency.
Pennsylvania, which Biden won by more than 80 votes in 2020 and could be a swing this year, added more than 70600 naturalized immigrants from fiscal years 2021 to 2023.
Complete data from US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for other key states was not available, but combined data from fiscal years 2021 and 2022 also showed significant growth.
In Arizona, where Biden defeated Trump in 2020 by just over 10 votes, over 31 citizens were naturalized during this period.
Biden won by less than 12 votes in Georgia, where there were over 46 naturalizations. Over 15 naturalizations were registered in Nevada, where he won by less than 34 votes; over 30800 in Michigan, where he won by over 150 votes; over 37 new naturalizations in North Carolina, where Trump won by less than 75 votes; and over 11 in Wisconsin, which Biden won by almost 21 votes.
DHS data for fiscal year 2023 show that about 37 percent of new voters as of 2020 come from Asia, 33.5 percent from North and Central America and 11 percent from Africa. The top five countries of origin are Mexico, India, the Philippines, Cuba and the Dominican Republic.
Conservatives have criticized the Biden administration's response to illegal crossings for nearly four years, though that has intensified in recent months.
Although the policies of the Democratic Party are generally seen as more pro-immigration than those of the Republicans, it is not clear who naturalized citizens will vote for.
Pastor said that while some immigrants may not like Trump's rhetoric about illegal immigrants, others may see Democrats' border policies as unfair, considering they "have gone through the proper channels to naturalize."
Analysts say it's difficult to identify political leanings by taking into account races, countries of origin, states they live in and issues that affect individuals and families.
"We can't assume partisanship, so it depends on how the Harris and Trump campaigns handle the issues that concern young residents in these respective hard-fought states," said Denny Salas, a Democratic strategist.
"The main issue has been the economy and inflation," he added.
TJ McCormack, Republican communications specialist, said young citizens would vote more for Trump than Harris.
"In my experience, few people are as frustrated and offended by those who enter America illegally as legal immigrants and their first-generation American children... Anyone who has been through that tunnel feels a great deal of resentment toward anyone who cheats and toward politicians who allow that cheating... like Kamala Harris," Salas concluded.
Otherwise, the US presidential elections are expected to be held on November 5 (Tuesday). /Telegraph/
