“Trump Effect” triggers high numbers of US citizenship filings

World Today

The “Trump Effect” is having a positive effect on U.S. democracy-in ways Republican frontrunner Donald Trump might not have expected.

The number of Latino immigrants filing for citizenship has soared in response to the candidate’s anti-immigrant rhetoric. CCTV’s Andrea Arenas reports from Washington.

Latino voters make up 13 percent of all eligible voters in the U.S. That’s a record 27 million people and almost half are Millennials.

Of the 8.8 million legal permanent residents eligible to become U.S. citizens, around 5.4 million are Latino and most of them are Mexican.

According to immigration advocates, naturalization applications went up 15 percent in the last half of 2015 alone.

In the 2012 presidential elections, more than 70 percent of Latinos voted for Barack Obama while less than 30 percent for Republican Mitt Romney.

Republicans were hoping to change with around two million extra Latino voters expected to vote this year.

As the Latino community mobilizes to register more voters, they hope candidates will recognize the power of this voting bloc- before the results roll in this November.