Massive Tide of Naturalized Citizens Swells Voter Rolls

A voter registration drive with few parallels in U.S. history is being paid for and organized not by a political party but by the government--a consequence of a massive yearlong naturalization campaign expected to create 1.2 million new citizens in time for the November election.

At naturalization ceremonies from Los Angeles to New York, unprecedented numbers of new citizens are signing up to vote moments before taking the oath of loyalty to the United States.

With the U.S. naturalization rate three times as heavy as a year ago, analysts are paying more attention to the political consequences. In Southern California, one result may be the realization of the long-unfulfilled notion of Latino power.

In three days alone last week, 11,809 new citizens immediately turned in registration forms to county workers who were stationed at naturalization ceremonies in the Los Angeles Convention Center. Hundreds more handed over forms to political activists working the crowds outside.

Everywhere they turned, the immigrants were reminded of the importance of participating in the government of their new country. Even the magistrate who swore in thousands of new citizens Friday, Andrew J. Wistrich, told them that one of the responsibilities of citizenship is that “we must vote in every election.”

Republican critics have charged that Citizenship U.S.A., the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s accelerated push to naturalize a record number of immigrants, is a thinly veiled attempt to increase the ranks of Democratic voters in a presidential election year.

The INS expects 318,000 residents in seven Southern California counties to become citizens this year, a number equivalent to the population of California’s ninth largest city.

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In California, at least, the Democratic Party appears to be gaining the upper hand in the effort to win over the new voters. President Clinton has the advantage, like presidents past, of presenting each new citizen with a letter of congratulations.

In Los Angeles as elsewhere, each of the 25,800 people who became a new citizen last week received a packet that included a voter registration card and a letter from Clinton on fine stationery embossed with the presidential seal.

Anticipating even more voters joining the rolls after another series of mass naturalization ceremonies scheduled for October, county Registrar-Recorder Conny McCormack plans to keep her Norwalk office open weekends to allow new citizens to sign up as late as a week before the November election.

A little-known provision in a 1993 state law allows new citizens to register to vote after the Oct. 7 deadline established for other voters.

“We’ll have a huge number of new citizens,” said McCormack, who expects thousands to travel to Norwalk to register to vote. “We’ll do everything we can to accommodate them. The enthusiasm is always there.”

The local impact of the naturalization drive is sure to be felt in heavily immigrant areas such as the 33rd Congressional District in southeast Los Angeles County. For years, much of the 33rd has been, politically speaking, in another country, with fewer registered voters than any congressional district in the United States. But since 1992, about 14,000 new voters have joined the rolls in the heavily Latino immigrant district, at a rate of increase 12 times that of the county as a whole.

“We knew it was going to happen,” said Yolanda Chavez, chief of staff for the 33rd District’s congresswoman, Lucille Roybal-Allard. “The southeast is going to be the next Latino voting power in L.A. County. The numbers are there and it was just a matter of time.”

Republicans, Chavez said sardonically, “should thank their friend Pete Wilson,” who has supported anti-illegal-immigrant initiatives such as Proposition 187 in 1994. “Proposition 187 was the start of this. I keep thinking about sending [the governor] a thank-you note because he did the biggest favor to the California Democratic Party.”

Mexicans and Salvadorans form the largest number of the Southland’s newly naturalized citizens. Bruce Cain, associate director of the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley, says studies show that citizens from those countries will favor Democrats over Republicans by 2 to 1.

In a close statewide race--not expected this year, with Clinton holding a substantial lead in polls over former Sen. Bob Dole--”it potentially could alter the result,” Cain said. In smaller races, such as next year’s election for mayor of Los Angeles, the election could be “very much impacted” by the thousands of new voters. “They want to vote and they’re enthusiastic,” he said.

Because of Los Angeles’ segregated housing patterns, the impact on most district elections figures to be limited; most immigrant districts are already overwhelmingly Democratic. Registration in the 33rd District, for example, is 76% Democratic.

Curtis Gans, director of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate in Washington, D.C., says it remains unclear how many of the newly registered citizens will vote.

“Some of them might take their new citizenship seriously, but you’re also in a situation where a lot of these people are becoming naturalized because of the threat of the new immigration legislation,” Gans said.

“My guess is that to the extent they vote, they’re not going to be helpful to the Republicans.”

In the Pico-Union district just west of downtown--one of the sections of Los Angeles with little historical participation in the American political process--Salvadoran immigrant Carlos Ardon is feeling the pull of politics, American-style, even though he has only been a U.S. citizen for two months.

Ardon, a student activist in his native country, is trying to pull together the growing number of Salvadorans who have become U.S. citizens over the past year into the embryo of a political machine. (After Mexicans and Salvadorans, the next largest groups of new Southland citizens are Filipinos, Vietnamese and Iranians.)

Ardon’s Salvadoran-American Organization has only 25 full-time members, but a mailing list of 200, nearly all of them new citizens who have been naturalized over the past year.

“We are following the same steps as the Mexican Americans and the other nationalities that have come here,” said Ardon, 37. “They form their political action committees that support different candidates. And they try to organize the community to have its own political platform.”

The Salvadoran-American Organization was among the many groups with tables on the walkways outside the Convention Center on Friday, pitching political messages to the new citizens just moments after they took their oath of allegiance to the United States.

“Republicans register here!” one man shouted.

“Democrats register here for Clinton!” shouted another.

The Democratic activists, whose ranks included a man in a sombrero carrying a Clinton-Gore poster, vastly outnumbered the Republicans. One man, a loyal Republican angered at the lack of GOP partisans, picked up a Dole-Kemp sign and waved it at the five tables of Democrats. “We are the underdog right now!” he shouted. “We’ve got to fight back!”

Paul Winters, a Republican Party activist, acknowledged that the Democrats were a step ahead in reaching the new citizens.

“They receive a message from Bill Clinton [inside],” Winters said. “So we’re starting two steps behind. That’s why it’s so important to get information to them.”

Many of those new citizens walking past the activists said they would support the Democrats. Mohammad Khalid, a Pakistani-born used car salesman, said he was looking forward to voting for Clinton, whom he described as “a very intelligent man, very impressive.”

Mexican-born Rosalva Vera, a dental office manager from Sylmar who became a citizen after 27 years in the United States, said, “I’m so proud, you have no idea. I think my community needs to get involved and not sit back and wait.” Vera also said she will vote for Clinton.

But Lili Beth Mercado, a Philippines-born shipping clerk from Los Angeles, said she would vote for Dole because “he has served the country. And Clinton didn’t do anything.”

Others, however, were not so willing to reveal their loyalties.

“In my family, we always keep it a secret,” said Marta F. Qunitrell of Alhambra, a native of Costa Rica who became a citizen after 36 years in the United States. Her husband and her three adult daughters are all American citizens.

“I felt that it was about time, after having been here all of my life,” she said of her naturalization. “People can buy property and do so many other things without being a citizen. But they can’t do the most important thing, which is to vote.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

A Gold Mine of Voters

Each of the approximately 1 million people becoming a new U.S. citizen this year will receive this letter from President Clinton--along with a voter registration form. Excerpts shown are the letter’s first and last paragraphs.

Dear Fellow American:

I want to congratulate you on reaching the impressive milestone of becoming a citizen of our great nation. As you enjoy the benefits of American citizenship and assume the responsibilities that accompany it, you follow the many brave men and women who have sacrificed to establish and preserve our democracy over the last two centuries.

*****

Hillary and I welcome you as a new citizen and extend our best wishes for much happiness in the future.

Sincerely,

(Bill Clinton signature)

* CAMPAIGN TRAIL

Clinton targets “deadbeat parents”; Dole slams economy. A24

* RELATED COVERAGE: A30