Michigan Latina is Obama link to states, communities: Detroit News

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090315/METRO/903150326/1409/METRO

Detroit native Cecilia Munoz, President Barack Obama's Director of Intergovernmental affairs, talks during an interview on Tuesday March 3, 2009 at the White House in Washington, DC. (Arianne Teeple / Special to The Detroit News)

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Michigan Latina is Obama link to states, communities

Deb Price / Detroit News Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Michigan native Cecilia Munoz wasn't used to busy senators calling her personally to ask about Latino concerns, so Barack Obama -- then a new senator from Illinois -- quickly stood out.

"It is rare for someone in the U.S. Senate to call you up on the spur of the moment for help in something he was thinking through," recalls Munoz, who was then a top Capitol Hill lobbyist for the National Council of La Raza.

"When (Obama) had questions about policy, he would call. He really developed those kinds of relationships with people. I learned his openness to counsel and advice and guidance."

When Senator Obama became President Obama, he tapped the mother of two teen-aged daughters to become director of White House intergovernmental affairs, the "doorway," as she puts it, between all state and local officials and the president.

"We need a strong partnership with state and local government in order to deliver ... change. My job is to make sure those partnerships are as strong as possible," said Munoz, who grew up in Livonia, the daughter of Bolivian immigrants.

It wasn't something she sought.

"He twisted my arm pretty hard," she said.

"He told me he wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. And that he and the First Lady were determined to make this a family-friendly White House."

The role, says presidential scholar Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution, started in the Eisenhower White House.

To do the job well, you need the skills of a hotel concierge, a juggler, and a scout.

"You've got to deal with a lot of people," Hess said. "It's useful to be a good reporter, so you can tell the president what's on people's mind."

Munoz's early weeks have been dominated by answering questions from state and local officials about the $787 billion economic stimulus bill.

She's also helped areas hit by natural disasters. And, she took some heat from watchdog groups as one of the former lobbyists who got exceptions from lobbyist-wary Obama to serve in his administration.

"Every day has surprises and mysteries that have to be solved and every day is really truly an adventure here, but in a wonderful way," says Munoz, who wears her University of Michigan class ring and displays a Wolverine bumper sticker in her West Wing office.

At 46, Munoz brings two decades of experience as an advocate for Latino issues on Capitol Hill. She is credited as being a key player in the Immigration Act of 1990, part of her Latino advocacy that netted her a $500,000 "genius" award from the MacArthur Foundation in 2000.

Before La Raza, Munoz worked at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, helping Latinos become U.S. citizens.

While studying at U-M, she tutored Latino inmates at the state prison in Jackson.

"I always sensed she was bound for greatness," says Jane Gietzen, who was a U-M dorm adviser with Munoz. "Social justice was in her heart and soul. She was a 'wise beyond her years' kind of person."

Munoz traces her interest in fighting for underdogs to her immigrant parents and to watching the civil rights efforts in Detroit. Her father, who also attended U-M, worked 40 years at Ford as an engineer.

She draws praise from Raymond Scheppach, the executive director of the National Governors Association.

"She takes care of things, and has broad policy understanding," said Scheppach, who observed her set up meetings involving governors, the president, and senior administration officials.

"That's a very intense job. You have to be good at keeping a lot of balls in the air," added Scheppach.

As one of the highest-ranking Latinos in the Obama administration, Munoz will also be a sounding board for the president on the growing community's issues, including the hot button issue of overhauling immigration policy.

"She's not daunted by things that other people are," says longtime friend and La Raza colleague Lisa Navarrette. "She definitely is the iron fist in the velvet glove."

You can reach Deb Price at dprice@detnews.com or (202) 662-8736.

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Victory on voter ID may cost GOP Latino support

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/state/stories/031609dntexlatinoid.3d934b1.html

Victory on voter ID may cost GOP Latino support

12:17 AM CDT on Monday, March 16, 2009

 

By CHRISTY HOPPE and TERRENCE STUTZ / The Dallas Morning News

choppe@dallasnews.com ; tstutz@dallasnews.com

 

AUSTIN – Republicans may win their fierce battle to require voters to present photo IDs, a vibrant issue to grassroots conservatives. But doing so could help them lose the larger, future war for political dominance.

 

Many Latinos, who are the fastest-growing bloc of voters in Texas, feel the bill is aimed at them, with Republicans raising the specter of illegal immigrants casting ballots and swinging elections. This bill, coupled with Republican efforts to crack down on illegal immigration, has led experts to see the Texas GOP quickly losing inroads in the Hispanic community that took years to build.

 

Republican leaders dismiss the notion that promoting a requirement for voters to present a picture or other forms of identification before they vote will damage the party among minorities.

 

Eric Opiela, executive director of the state party, pointed to a University of Texas poll last year that found 70 percent of Texans favor requiring a photo ID to vote – including 68 percent of blacks and 65 percent of Hispanics.

 

But it has become a noxious partisan issue, forcing the 19 Republicans in the Senate to change rules to muscle the measure past the 12 Democrats after a marathon all-night hearing. A final vote this week will send the bill to a less certain future in the House where Republicans hold a mere 76-74 advantage.

 

Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, and others believe the GOP talking points on the issue, commonly referred to as "voter ID," have been decidedly anti-Hispanic.

 

"They would have you believe that busloads of illegal immigrants are coming to a district near you and engaging in voter impersonation in order to vote for Democrats," he said.

 

Six years of sitting on legislative panels studying voter fraud has taught him that people will tamper with mailed-in ballots. But he said there is virtually no evidence of anyone – illegal immigrants or others – showing up at polling places to vote with someone else's voter registration card.

 

"The Latino community is not stupid," Anchia said. "You can't call us fat, ugly and stupid for a year and then ask us to go to the prom with you. It's just not going to happen."

 

Election numbers

 

The attitude seems to be reflected in election numbers: Latino support in Texas was 49 percent for President George W. Bush in 2004; 44 percent for U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in 2006, when she was the top official on the ballot; and 35 percent last year for John McCain.

 

Democrats say that requiring a photo ID will be particularly hard on the disabled, the elderly and low-income workers without driver's licenses, many of whom are more likely to be racial minorities. Republican supporters of the measure say the issue of securing the integrity of the ballot is important enough to tighten the ID requirements, even if it inconveniences some.

 

Longtime GOP consultant Royal Masset said it is a "serious mistake" for the party to put so much emphasis on the issue in Texas.

 

"There's no doubt voter ID does great" among the Republican base, he said. "But it is also the kind of issue that could lose the Latino vote for the Republican Party for the next 30 years."

 

Masset, the former political director for the state party, called voter ID "another last straw" for Latinos, who would be forced by Republicans to spend time and money obtaining additional IDs because of an alleged threat of fraudulent voting.

 

"One way to get Latinos upset is to start criminalizing them, to imply they are criminals," he said. "And Hispanics should take this personally, because it is aimed at them."

 

Jerry Polinard, a political science professor at the University of Texas-Pan American, predicted that if Republicans are able to push through voter ID, it will be just like the immigration issue: "another gift for the Democratic Party."

 

Polinard, an expert on voting patterns across the state and particularly in South Texas, said that while there is nothing "intrinsically discriminatory" about requiring a photo ID to vote, "it will be about as popular down here as the border fence."

 

"In the short run, voter ID helps the Republican Party in Texas because it is red meat for the base," he said. "But the clock is ticking.

 

"With every election, the Latino vote becomes more important, and in the long run this will come back to haunt the party, because it is seen as having a disproportionate effect on minority voters."

 

Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, used the example of her 94-year-old aunt, who has lived with her family and other relatives over the years. Her aunt does not drive or have utility bills or bank accounts in her own name.

 

When advocates of voter ID suggest it's easy to show papers or a driver's license to prove who you are at the voting booth, they are ignoring how a lot of close-knit families operate, she said.

 

"When somebody disses your grandmother, they dis you. And when someone disses what you believe in ... is when Latinos act," she said.

 

Other states

 

Michael Bustamante, a spokesman for the William C. Velasquez Institute, which studies Latino voting trends, said what he's seeing in Texas with the voter ID bill is happening in other states as well.

 

The states pushing the measure have GOP leadership that wants to protect the ballot from illegal voters, which is understandable, he said.

 

"But it's the tone and the tenor of the argument," which seems to be aimed at the growing numbers of Hispanic voters and wondering if they're legal, Bustamante said.

 

"It's amazing how hard Republicans are working to create a divide between their party and the Latino voter," he said. "Pretty soon we're going to be blamed for athlete's foot."

 

But Texas GOP leader Opiela said the only ones hurt by the voter ID bill are the Democrats, who are bucking a popular and commonsense proposal.

 

The Democratic stance "will come back to haunt them," he said, adding: "We certainly plan to make it an issue in the next election."

 

So, say the Democrats, do they.

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http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2009/03/15/20090315arpaio-politics0315.html

Feds' new tone puts Arpaio in hot seat

D.C. leaders now more likely to hear profiling complaints

by Dan Nowicki - Mar. 15, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Few are feeling the change that President Barack Obama has brought to Washington more acutely than Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Not yet two months into the Obama administration, the veteran Republican lawman finds himself under investigation by the Justice Department following complaints that his office employs unconstitutional practices in enforcing immigration laws. On Capitol Hill, a high-profile congressional committee is preparing to hold an investigative hearing into whether Arpaio's operation discriminates against Latinos. And, based at least partly on Arpaio's record, the Homeland Security Department is revising the rules of the federal program, known as 287(g), that gives federal immigration-enforcement authority to Arpaio and other local officials around the country.

The controversial and popular five-term sheriff chalks the probes up to politics. But others say a renewed focus on civil rights has prompted the scrutiny.

Attorney General Eric Holder made it clear in his Senate confirmation hearing that he intended to make safeguarding civil rights a priority again. Holder's previous tenure at the Justice Department, as a deputy attorney general during President Bill Clinton's administration, was marked by a keen attention to police racial-profiling complaints.

Racial-profiling complaints were virtually ignored during President George W. Bush's eight-year term. And the Justice Department's inspector general recently blistered the Civil Rights Division for the unlawful politicization of personnel actions during the Bush era. Laura Sweeney, a Justice Department spokeswoman, declined to characterize the Arpaio inquiry as the administration's first major probe, saying that would be "a bit subjective." She confirmed that the Civil Rights Division has opened other investigations since Holder took office.

"Both in tone and in content, the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division has changed dramatically," said Paul Charlton, who was U.S. attorney for Arizona from 2001 to 2006 and now represents Maricopa County Supervisor Don Stapley in a criminal case brought by Arpaio and Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas. Stapley maintains he is innocent of the charges, which relate to real-estate and business deals that prosecutors allege were not properly disclosed.

One outside expert doubted that Arpaio is the victim of political persecution by the Civil Rights Division, particularly in light of the report that exposed politics-related abuses in the Bush Justice Department. The findings, based on a joint investigation by the department's Office of the Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility, were made public in January.

"There is an increased sensitivity to wanting to have a Civil Rights Division that is active but not politically influenced," said Rebecca Lonergan, a former assistant U.S. attorney and Justice Department insider who is now an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Southern California's Gould School of Law. "I do not believe that they would be dumb enough to open this investigation as a political decision. It would be extremely bad timing."

A political target?

Critics of Arpaio and his illegal- immigration-related crime-suppression sweeps and workplace raids are cheering the shift in the political winds.

"Our sense is that finally - finally - there is reception in Washington," said Monica Sandschafer, state director of Arizona ACORN, a chapter of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. "Finally there is an administration that is interested in holding people accountable for the Constitution and the rule of law."

But Arpaio suggests he is a political target of Democrats, saying that by vilifying him as a racial profiler, they are trying to achieve a larger goal of scrapping or radically altering the 287(g) program. The program was created under Clinton but wasn't promoted until after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, during the Bush administration.

The Democratic Obama administration, Arpaio said, gives new clout to the sheriff's political foes such as Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, who nearly a year ago asked for a federal probe of the sheriff, and Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox. Obama's Homeland Security secretary is Janet Napolitano, who, even if not directly involved, can provide the Justice Department with valuable institutional knowledge about Arpaio based on her experience working with him in Arizona in her previous roles as U.S. attorney, state attorney general and governor.

It's understandable that the Justice Department is feeling pressure from the various politicians clamoring for action, Arpaio said.

"Everyone who is making an issue is a Democrat," Arpaio said. "The big problem is the 287(g). I'm the most active (participant), the largest with 160 officers, and they're using me as a poster boy.

"They're using me as a catalyst to make an issue of this, hoping that they can get something on me and my deputies on racial profiling so they can say, 'See what happens under 287(g).' "

Arpaio also is drawing criticism from the Democrat-controlled House Judiciary Committee, where partisanship often flares. But here, too, observers say Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., the panel's chairman, is motivated by a long-term commitment to civil rights. Conyers, like Holder, is Black.

"I don't think you can discount the importance of race here. Conyers is an old civil-rights veteran," said Rodolfo Espino, an assistant political science professor at Arizona State University. "You have two African-Americans looking at this who are very cognizant of civil rights and what African-Americans went through."

Hearing in April

Sandschafer and Alicia Navejar, another Arizona ACORN leader and Arpaio critic, were in Washington on Wednesday as Conyers announced that he will hold a hearing on Arpaio in April. The development came the day after the Justice Department probe was revealed. Conyers previously had urged Holder and Napolitano to investigate Arpaio.

Navejar was energized after speaking at the Conyers news conference, saying she hopes Arpaio is "taken to justice."

"I was just so excited to be part of something that is going to make a difference to not only just one person or two people but to thousands of lives," said Navejar, a naturalized U.S. citizen who lives in Phoenix. "I can see what it has done (to Latino families)."

Yet Arpaio's immigration crackdowns are wildly popular, and he was re-elected in November by a wide margin.

Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., a Judiciary Committee member, worries that hearings will exploit racial fears for partisan political gain.

"I think they would like to try to paint all Republicans as racist and motivated by things like racial profiling," Franks said. "I have not seen one iota of evidence that the sheriff has done anything but enforce the law on the basis that he is trying to protect the people within the county he serves."

Franks echoed Arpaio's suggestion that the 287(g) program is a target. "A big goal of the liberal Democrats in Congress is to try to do away with any effective cooperation to enforce federal immigration laws," he said.

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The U.S. Hispanic Economy in Transition: Executive Summary

http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/_client/pdf/heit/HEIT08_ExecSum.pdf

GLOBAL STRATEGY SOLUTIONS FOR MARKET LEADERS
Executive Summary
Special Report
The U.S. Hispanic Economy in Transition: Executive Summary

Chapter 1: POPULATION

• Hispanics are now the largest ethnic minority in the United States, numbering 45.5 million. They account for 15.1 percent of the population, compared to 12.9 percent for African Americans and 4.4 percent for Asians.

• By 2050, the Census projects that the Hispanic proportion of the U.S. population will soar to 24.44 percent, or nearly one fourth of the total population.

• Between 1990 and 2006, U.S. Hispanics increased by 97.8 percent – almost five times faster than the national growth rate of 19.8 percent. Since 2000, the number of Hispanics has expanded by 24.4 percent, accounting for nearly half of the increase in the United States’ population for that period.

• The second generation, with its low median age of 12.7 years and its high fertility rate, will lead this shift in the composition of the U.S. Hispanic market. Projections by the Pew Hispanic Center show that by 2020 nearly half (47.0 percent) of the growth in the U.S. Hispanic population will come from the second generation and another 27.5 percent from the third generation. With the ascent of the second generation, immigrants will account for only a quarter of all new U.S. Hispanics by 2020.
• Only 24 percent of U.S. Hispanics have little or no command of the English language.

Chapter 2: HOUSEHOLD

• Hispanic households are much larger than their non-Hispanic counterparts. Hispanic households average 3.4 persons, with 1.6 of those being wage earners. The typical non-Hispanic household has 2.4 persons, of whom 1.3 are wage earners

• Hispanic households also contain more young people than non-Hispanic homes. Hispanic households have 1.11 children under 18, while the overall U.S. average is 0.59 children per household

• The median age for Hispanics was 27.3 in 2006, compared with 36.4 for the overall U.S. population. While the U.S. median age continues to rise, from 35.3 years in 2000, the median age of Hispanics remains the lowest of all groups.

• There are distinct differences in age among Hispanic subgroups. More than 18 percent of Cubans are 65 or older, while a scant 4 percent of Mexicans are in that age bracket. On the other hand, 36.7 percent of Mexicans and 33.6 percent of Puerto Ricans are younger than 18, compared with just 23.3 percent of Cubans.

Chapter 3: LABOR FORCE

• Between 1980 and 2006, the total U.S. labor force increased by 41.65 percent, or 44.6 million workers. Hispanics contributed 14.5 million workers to the total, accounting for nearly a third of the increase in the U.S. labor force during the last 26 years.

• Over the six-year period between 2000 and 2006, Hispanics accounted for the greatest part (79.2 percent) of the 25 percent overall growth in “construction and extraction occupations.” Hispanics also represented more than one fourth (26.5 percent) of the 41.85 percent growth in “management, business, and financial operations occupations.” Indeed, certain industries have relied on Hispanics to grow or competitively sustain their operations.

• Among U.S. workers in the 20- to 24-year-old group, 17.96 percent are Hispanic. Since 34.3 percent of U.S. Hispanics are younger than 18, the near future will see large numbers of young Hispanics entering the labor pool.

• Data indicate a strong link between educational attainment and Hispanic earnings. In 2006, median earnings for Hispanic males with bachelor’s degrees reached $45,917, while median earnings for those with only high school diplomas were $30,844. Furthermore, Hispanic men with master’s degrees had median earnings of $68,167.
• The number of Hispanics in management and professional occupations has increased over time. In 2000, only 6.6 percent of Hispanic workers were in management, business, or financial operations occupations. By 2006, that had increased to 7.5 percent.

Chapter 4: CONSUMER MARKETS

• During the past decade, U.S. Hispanic purchasing power has increased at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.96 percent. That annual growth in disposable income is more than double the total U.S. rate of 2.8 percent. In dollars amounts, Hispanic buying power jumped from $429 billion in 1996 to $870 billion in 2008, with the Hispanic share of the total US disposable income reaching 8.6%

• U.S. Hispanic purchasing power will grow nearly 31 percent from $841.37 billion in 2006 to $1.10 trillion by 2012.

• Nearly one quarter of the $592.2 billion that Hispanics spent on consumer expenditures in 2006 went to just two categories: food and vehicles. Hispanics spent 11.8 percent on food in 2006 and 11.4 percent on vehicle purchases.

• Hispanics also increased their market share of new vehicle purchases at a brisk pace: up from 4.7 percent in 1994 to 10.7 percent in 2006.

• U.S. Hispanics have substantially increased their aggregate financial assets. From 2000 to 2005, the value of Hispan¬ics’ financial assets expanded at a compound annual growth rate of 4.4 percent, well above the 0.6 percent annual increase in value reported for all U.S. households.

Chapter 5: WEALTtH

• Robust immigration and high fertility rates quadrupled the number of U.S. Hispanic households from 2.7 million in 1972 to 12.03 million by 2006. At the same time, mean household income among Hispanics showed an impressive growth rate of 56 percent in real dollars. The mean income of Hispanic households actually rose from $32,335 in 1972 to $50,575 in 2006.

• Household income reached $38,747, or 80 percent of the overall U.S. median household income. Households of Puerto Rican origin reported the lowest median family income among U.S. Hispanics of $35,899, while the highest median income of $48,037 was reported for Hispanics of South American origin. Hispanics from Cuba also reported the above-average median income of $41,823.

• Among U.S. Hispanics, 61.0 percent of net worth was concentrated in homeownership, compared with 63.0 percent for blacks and 38.5 percent for whites in 2002. Hispanics also tend to invest more in their own businesses. In 2006, the mean net worth for Hispanic households reached $72,862.

• The aggregate net worth of the U.S. Hispanic population reached $945 billion in 2006, a stunning 111.1 percent increase from 1996. Two forces drove that accumulation of wealth: a 58 percent increase in the number of Hispanic households and a 34 percent rise in average net worth. For non-Hispanic whites, the increase in aggregate net worth was 72.8 percent over the same period.

Chapter 6: BUSINESS AND ENTREPRENEURS

• Hispanic-owned companies are among the fastest-growing business segments in the nation, and here too small businesses drive growth. The number of Hispanic firms jumped 273 percent between 1987 and 2002, rising to 1.6 million, according to the latest 2002 Survey of Business Owners published in 2006.

• Service industries predominated among Hispanic-owned firms. The largest single industrial sector, as classified by the U.S. Census, was “Other Services,” accounting for 15.8 percent of all Hispanic-owned firms.

• Not surprising, Hispanic firms are concentrated in states with large Hispanic populations. California is home to 27.2 percent of all Hispanic companies, according to 2002 Census data. Next is Texas with 20.3 percent, while Florida ranks third.

• Hispanic-owned companies represent an increasingly important component of the U.S. enterprise economy. HispanTelligence estimates that the number of Hispanic-owned firms approached 3 million in 2008, with business receipts of $389 billion.

Chapter 7: EDUCATION

• Native-born Hispanics graduate from high school at nearly twice the rate of foreign-born Hispanics. In 2006, 75.0 percent of native-born Hispanics were high school graduates, compared to 47.8 percent of foreign-born Hispanics.

• Because of the growth in their numbers, the education of Hispanics has emerged as an economic development issue in public policy. At the same time, Hispanics have become prime consumers of such services as vocational training and language tutoring, as well as formal schooling. In the future, the Hispanic market for education will continue to grow as the demographic wave of young Hispanic Americans comes of age.

• Of the 1.44 million bachelor’s degrees conferred in the academic year 2004-05, 101,124 went to Hispanics. Of those, 21.7 percent were in business, 12.2 percent in social science and history, and 7.4 percent in psychology.

Chapter 8: YOUTH

• A defining characteristic of the Hispanic market is its youth. Young people under the age of 18 account for almost 34 percent of the U.S. Hispanic population – significantly greater than the 24.6 percent share held by youth in the overall U.S. population.

• In 2006, there were 73.8 million people under the age of 18 in the United States; 20 percent, or 14.95 million, were Hispanic. To place things in perspective, Hispanic youth had a population growth of approximately 1 million in just two years (2004 to 2006). Hispanics under the age of 18 year have emerged as an important consumer segment.

• The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that of the 102.6 million Hispanics expected to be residing in the United States by 2050, more than 29.1 million, or 28.4 percent, will be under the age of 18.

• The rise of the second generation will have immediate consequences for the nation’s school system. The number of second-generation Hispanics ages 5 to 19 is projected to more than double between 2000 and 2020, growing from 4.4 million to almost 9 million. About one in every seven new students enrolling in U.S. schools during this 20-year span will be a second-generation Hispanic.

Chapter 9: POLITICS

• Based on voter registration and participation trends, 9.8 million Hispanics were registered to vote in the 2004 election. Of that number, 7.0 million - a striking 71.3 percent - cast ballots. Based on 2004 trends, the fall 2008 presidential election can expect to see 10.6 million registered Hispanic voters with approximately 8.6 million Hispanics actually going to the polls.

• Recent data suggest U.S. Hispanics have shifted back to their longtime affiliation with the Democratic Party. According to a 2008 study by the Pew Hispanic Center, 57 percent of registered Hispanic voters are Democrats, 23 percent are Republicans, and 12 percent are independent.

• Participation in the electoral process tends to rise with educational attainment. Although this may occur because most college graduates are U.S. citizens, Hispanics with advanced college degrees had a higher propensity to register and vote in the 2004 election than Hispanics with less education. The 2008 Super Tuesday primaries seem to indicate a 50/50 split, with half of the Hispanic voters earning more than a $50,000 dollar income and half less.

• Latino elected officials are rising at the local and national levels. Since 1996, Hispanics have seen a 37.1 percent rise in representation with major contributions by elected officials in Texas and California. New Jersey and Illinois.

• Despite U.S. Hispanics’ gains in population and disposable income, there remains disparity in voting. Currently, Hispanics represent 15.1 percent of the total U.S. population, 13.6 percent of the U.S. labor force, and 8.2 percent of U.S. aggregate household income. However, Hispanics represent only 6.0 percent of the U.S. voting population.

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