The immigration debate of 2006 may seem like old news in some parts of the country, but it goes on — and on — in Patchwork Nation’s Immigration Nation communities. These are places where the term minority is hard to apply — Hispanics and Anglos represent equal parts of the community. And because the Hispanic populations are large and, to some extent, interwoven, these are the places where racial tensions are running high in 2008.

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Regardless of what the federal government is or isn’t doing on the immigration front, at the local level, the sheriffs of these 144 counties, with its 12 million people, are trolling for unauthorized migrants at routine traffic stops and newspapers are, at times, full of angry letters to the editor.

While Immigration Nation counties are concentrated in the Southwest and West, as the nation’s Hispanic immigrants leave a broader footprint around the country, these counties are extending to places far from the U.S.-Mexican border: North Carolina, Indiana and Wisconsin.

Immigration Nation counties are younger than the nation as whole, due in large part to Hispanic families with young children, and they are also poorer — 60 percent of the households in these places have a household income less than $44,000 and 14 percent of the families live in poverty. As one might expect, there are more Catholics here per capita than there are in the United States as a whole, along with more agricultural workers and fewer professionals.

Those numbers mean the economy is an issue here as well, though in a different way than in other Patchwork Nation communities. These are places that are not feeling rattled by Wall Street’s problems necessarily, but they are having a hard time with gas prices and food prices. And employment, and unemployment, can be big issues. In places where the local authorities are cracking down on immigration, it is hard for immigrants to find jobs, which can damage the local economy. And, just as important, it is hard for employers to find people to fill jobs. They fear, even if an applicant’s paperwork is in order, they may be hiring someone that could leave them in a lurch (people come and go in these communities, often suddenly) or in trouble with the law.

Though Hispanics tend to vote Democratic, these communities as a whole went solidly to President Bush in 2004. People here may or may not tell you their presidential vote is not about immigration — the federal government’s role in the issue is often less critical than what happening at the local level — but the issue of immigration is a driving force, directly and indirectly, on the way of life, and will direct voting decisions.
— Dante Chinni

Read more about the Patchwork Nation communities at The Takeaway’s election Web site, vote2008.thetakeaway.org »