http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/sns-ap-immigration-politics,1,6559832.storyImmigrants Flocking to GOP Districts
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press Writer
9:49 AM PDT, October 21, 2006
DALTON, Ga. -- It's a slice of Americana: children playing soccer on a sunny Saturday morning, their parents cheering them on. But at these soccer fields, the dominant language is Spanish, the food truck sells authentic Mexican and few of the adults are eligible to vote.
Along the sidelines, America Gruner lugs a plastic tub filled with blank voter registration forms. Gruner has worked for months to register Latinos, inspired by an immigration debate that has become shrill to many Hispanics. Most politicians in this Republican stronghold in north Georgia offer little sympathy.
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Republican congressional districts are becoming magnets for immigrants -- legal and illegal -- but GOP lawmakers are not exactly embracing their new constituents.
Of the 50 House districts nationwide with the fastest-growing immigrant communities, 45 are represented by Republicans. All but three of those lawmakers voted for a bill that would make illegal immigrants felons.
Overall, GOP districts added about 3 million immigrants from 2000 to 2005, nearly twice the number that settled in districts represented by Democrats, according to an Associated Press analysis of census data.
The numbers help explain why illegal immigration is such a big issue in rural Georgia, eastern Pennsylvania and in suburbs throughout the United States.
They also help explain why House Republicans passed five bills on border security in the weeks before Congress recessed for the Nov. 7 elections. Only one measure, calling for a border fence, has become law.
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link:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/sns-ap-immigration-politics,1,6559832.story