Election 2008: What’s At Stake?

The economic crisis and recent spate of immigration raids have dampened Latino voters’ morale, according to a new Pew Hispanic Center study.

Half of the 2,000 Latinos surveyed said that their situation was worse today than a year ago. Sixty-three percent of Latinos who had immigrated to the U.S. felt that way. In 2007, a similar survey found only a third of Latinos and 43 percent of Latino immigrants felt that things were worse than in 2006.

The report suggests that unemployment and increasing hostility to immigration are causing Latinos’ pessimism, noting that 1 in 7 said they had had trouble finding or keeping a job because they were Latino. More than half say they worry they or someone close to them will be deported.

This pessimism is already translating to support for Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama, whom general polls show Americans trust more when it comes to economic issues. Though Sen. John McCain championed immigration reform in the Senate, Latinos gained an unfavorable impression of the Republican party after conservatives killed the bill and McCain backed away from it.

Read the full report here. (PDF)

(AP Photo)