Immigrants to comprise highest-ever percentage of electorate in 2020

Immigrants who became U.S. citizens will make up 1-in-10 American adults eligible to vote in the November election, the highest percentage ever, according to a report released Wednesday.

A new study by nonpartisan think tank Pew Research concluded approximately 23.2 million immigrants, or naturalized citizens who were born outside of the United States, will be able to vote in the presidential election, as well as state and local elections this year. That figure is nearly double the 12 million immigrants who were eligible to vote in 2000. It has climbed over the past two decades and stood at 20.6 million in 2016.

As the number of immigrants eligible to vote has increased through the years, so has the percentage of immigrants within the eligible voting population. In 2000, 6.2% of voters were born outside the U.S. That percentage has grown with every presidential election cycle to 9.8% in 2020.

“Growth in the foreign-born eligible voter population reflects two broad U.S. population trends. First, the number of immigrants living in the U.S. has increased steadily since 1965, when the Immigration and Nationality Act became law,” Pew stated in the report. In the 55 years since the federal law was passed, the immigrant population has gone from 5 million to 45 million. Roughly half of the 45 million immigrants living in the U.S. today are lawful, permanent residents who became U.S. citizens.

“Second, a rising number and share of immigrants living in the U.S. have naturalized in recent years. Between 2009 and 2019, 7.2 million immigrants naturalized and became citizens, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security,” the report states. In fiscal 2019, 834,000 people took an oath to become U.S. citizens.

Most eligible immigrant voters are from Hispanic countries, at 34%, or Asian countries, at 31%. Mexican-born immigrants made up the largest percentage of U.S. citizens from any one country at 16%. The second-highest immigrant group was from the Philippines at 6%, following by India, China, and Vietnam at 5% each.

Pew’s findings were based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Bureau of Economic Research’s November Voting and Registration Supplement of the Current Population Survey.

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