‘Imagine 8 million new voters who care about our issues?’
Granting citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants would expand the “progressive” electorate and help ensure a “progressive” governing coalition for the long term, declared a recent adviser to President Obama whose union group is among the most frequent visitors to the White House.
“We reform the immigration laws, it puts 12 million people on the path to citizenship and eventually voters,” stated Eliseo Medina, international executive vice-president of Service Employees International Union, or SEIU.
Medina was speaking at a June 2009 Washington conference for the liberal America’s Future Now!
Medina said that during the presidential election in November 2008,Latinos and immigrants “voted overwhelmingly for progressivecandidates. Barack Obama got two out of every three voters that showedup.”
“Can you imagine if we have, even the same ratio, two out ofthree? Can you imagine 8 million new voters who care about our issuesand will be voting? We will be creating a governing coalition for thelong term, not just for an election cycle.”