In 2008, the country witnessed unprecedented voter turnout in communities across the country. The Latino and immigrant vote got on the map in new and innovative ways. Ninety-two percent of registered Latinos – almost half of whom were immigrants – reported casting a ballot. One in every six Latino voters in 2008 cast a ballot for the first time in that year’s elections. Media outlets across the country reported that the Latino and immigrant vote outnumbered the vote gap between the two Presidential candidates in many states. Naturalization rates in Asian communities skyrocketed, including naturalization among some of the largest API legal permanent resident populations from the Philippines, India, and the People’s Republic of China. Yet, there was a bittersweet element to 2008’s historic level of civic engagement. Raids rocked communities across the country, racially-motivated hate crimes spiked, and immigrant voters continued to face barriers to full participation in the democratic process. Immigrants, like many Americans, also struggled with the effects of the economic crisis and the widening gap between rich and poor.
Immigrant organizations across the state and country took a deep breath, then forged ahead to leverage this unprecedented voter turnout into tangible public policy changes and the expansion of voter participation in 2009. Immigrant community organizations and labor unions across California contacted immigrant voters to take action in support of health care reform, worker rights, environmental justice, tenant rights, criminal justice, and federal immigration reform. In early 2009, Congress renewed the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, extending eligibility to immigrant children, and President Barack Obama publicly declared his support for federal immigration reform. Immigrant voters in California played a pivotal role in blocking half-baked initiatives on the June 2009 ballot that were misleadingly sold as a panacea for the state’s chronic fiscal problems.
In 2010, thirty-six gubernatorial seats across the country will open up for elections, with the California race figuring prominently since no incumbent governor will be in the running. The state will most likely see major public policy decisions left to voters on topics ranging from tax and fiscal reform to immigrant rights, criminal justice, and reproductive justice – the outcomes of which will reverberate across the country. The 2010 Census count will determine the distribution of $400 billion in state and federal funds. Even with an exploding population, California could lose a Congressional seat if hard-to-count populations are excluded from the final count.
Within the next three to five years, Californians expect a complete overhaul of the state’s governance structure and fiscal policies. Moreover, nonprofit organizations will need to be even more strategic and effective as resources become more scarce.
How will communities engage with the Presidential administration? Will the country see federal immigrant reform in the next three years? Will California reshape its future and thus be a model for the country? Will California immigrants, one quarter of all immigrants in the country, play a leading role in social justice policy changes? The future is in the hands of local communities and their supporters. Building on six years of successful civic engagement campaigns, MIV launches its 2010-2012 Strategic Plan within this historic and political context.
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