The Lone Star State is the last big GOP bastion where Hispanics are a sizable voting bloc.

By Michael B. Farrell | Staff writer Christian Science Monitor

Houston

When President Bush says so long to Washington on Jan. 20, he’ll return to a much different Lone Star State from the one he left eight years ago.

Pickup trucks, Big Oil, and barbecue brisket still reign supreme, but this red state that helped deliver the presidency to Mr. Bush twice and his father once, and that catapulted GOP strategist Karl Rove to the national stage, is suddenly spotted with big pockets of blue.

Dallas is controlled by Democrats; Houston is in their hands, too. It’s all largely because of the state’s growing Hispanic population, which overwhelmingly sided with Democrats this year.

“The tide of demography in Texas is moving against the Republicans,” says Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “All the major cities are Democratic and are likely to become more so over time.”

The Pew Hispanic Center reports that Latino voters sided with President-elect Obama over Sen. John McCain by a margin of more than 2 to 1, helping Democrats win crucial states such as Florida, Virginia, Nevada, and Colorado. While the overall Hispanic turnout did not rise much – it accounted for 9 percent of the vote this year and 8 percent in 2004 – Latino support for the GOP dropped nine percentage points, according to Pew.

That has left Republicans panicking and Democrats drooling. Duncan Currie writes in last week’s conservative Weekly Standard that Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R) of Florida says the GOP has a “very, very serious problem” because of diminishing Hispanic support.

Political scientists, sociologists, and activists say that concern reflects a keen awareness of what a growing and increasingly political Latino community could mean in big, traditionally red states like Texas: Those voters could tip Democratic in future national contests.

“We are in the process of watching this remarkable shift,” says Stephen Klineberg, a sociologist at Rice University here, referring to the overall demographic transformation of America. “You can be absolutely certain that every election [to come] in Texas will have a larger percentage of Latino voters.”

In 2005, Texas joined California, New Mexico, and Hawaii as states where minority populations collectively outnumber whites, according to the US Census Bureau. In Texas and California, the second-largest group behind whites, and the fastest-growing population, is Hispanics. Nationwide, Hispanics number about 45.5 million, or 15 percent of the population. In Texas, Latinos make up about 36 percent of the population and about 20 percent of participating voters this year.

“It’s the biggest pool of Hispanic voters left in a state that didn’t vote Democratic in 2008,” not counting Arizona, because it’s Senator McCain’s home state, says Richard Murray, a political scientist at the University of Houston.

For the Democratic Party nationally, the overwhelming Hispanic support presents an inviting opportunity, especially to develop party loyalty among younger Latinos, who backed Mr. Obama 76 percent to 19 percent for McCain, according the Pew analysis.

In Harris Country, which includes Houston, 70 percent of people older than 60 are Anglo, while more than 75 percent of people younger than 30 are non-Anglo, notes Professor Klineberg.

While Bush didn’t carry the Hispanic vote here in 2004, he came close. He captured 49 percent of that bloc, with 50 percent going to Democratic rival Sen. John Kerry. Republicans also lost ground among Hispanics this year in Florida.

Since the advent of his political career, though, Bush found ways to appeal to the Latino community, which saw him favorably for his close relationships with Latin American leaders, his faith-based initiatives, and his ability to speak Spanish.

While Hispanics are not a monolithic bloc, many began turning away from the Republicans in Texas, and elsewhere in the US, amid the harsh rhetoric about immigration reform in 2007, says Professor Murray.

“Even in Texas you can’t just be a party of white folks,” he says. “Nationally and locally, the party is going to have to do some retooling.”

Though the Lone Star State’s spots of blue darkened on Election Day, the state remains solidly Republican (55 percent McCain, 44 percent Obama). McCain scored huge victories in rural Texas, taking as much as 93 percent of the vote in some counties in the Panhandle, helping deliver the state’s 34 electoral votes to the Republicans. The statehouse in Austin also remains in Republican hands.

Associated Press exit polls showed that whites, seniors, Christians, and the affluent largely stayed with the GOP ticket and that McCain took two-thirds of the state’s white vote and about three-fifths of families making more than $50,000 annually.

While rural, suburban, and small-town Texans stick with traditional Republican values, Klineberg says, a new cosmopolitan and high-tech Texas is emerging in cities such as Houston, which is the country’s fourth-largest city, with a population of about 2 million.

Houstonian Judy Craft, a longtime Democratic activist and an environmentalist, is used to swimming against the red tide in Texas. “I was hoping we’d do better, but that’s because I’m really good at suspending my disbelief during the middle of a campaign,” says Ms. Craft, who signed off her e-mails during the campaign with the hopeful wish that Texas would turn blue. “Oh well, at least I got a bluer shade of purple.”

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Marking a historic shift, Sen. Barack Obama won a majority of Florida’s Hispanic vote statewide and nearly tied Sen. John McCain in Miami-Dade, where Republicans had long dominated the Hispanic vote.

No Democratic presidential candidate had ever achieved either milestone since the exit polling of Hispanics first began in the 1980s, pollsters say.

Nationwide, Obama won the Hispanic vote by a wider margin, garnering 66 percent to McCain’s 32 percent, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

In Florida, Obama won 57 percent of the Hispanics on Tuesday, compared to 42 percent for McCain, according to exit polling by Bendixen & Associates, a Democratic pollster.

By comparison, President Bush won 55 percent of the state’s Hispanic vote to John Kerry’s 44 percent in 2004, according to exit polls.

Polls indicate the state’s Hispanic vote may now be divided. On one side are conservative older Cuban Americans, who vote reliably Republican. On the other are younger Cuban Americans coupled with an expanding number of non-Cuban Hispanics, who tend to lean Democratic.

”This is a demographic revolution happening in Miami-Dade County,” said

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By Matthew Garrahan in Los Angeles, Financial Times

A new generation of Latino voters from Nevada to Florida flocked to Barack Obama on Tuesday, overturning assumptions about their willingness to back a black candidate and creating a significant challenge for future Republican leaders.

In battleground states Latinos came out in force for Mr Obama. In Florida, new Mexican and Colombian voters also backed the Democratic candidate, overwhelming the state’s traditionally right-leaning Cuban American electorate.

“The exit polls showed that Latino support for Obama in Nevada was 75 per cent, which is pretty remarkable,” said Kenneth Fernandez, assistant professor of political science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

The high level of support nationwide was a reaction against Republican economic policies, said Josh Norek, deputy director of Voto Latino, a nonpartisan organisation aimed at young Latino voters.

“Latinos have borne the brunt of the economic downturn,” he said. “Many work in construction and when that industry came to a halt, they were all affected. A lot of people who were not politically engaged went to the polls this time.”

Mr Obama enjoyed overwhelming support from young Latino voters, with 76 per cent of those aged 18-29 backing the Democratic party candidate across the US, according to CNN exit polls.

Young Latino voters also make up one of the fastest growing voter blocs so harnessing their support is likely to be critical to deciding future elections: about 12 per cent of the US electorate is Latino but 18 per cent of young voters come from a Latino background.

Early voting helped the record turn-out of Latino voters, particularly in Nevada, where polls opened in supermarkets and post offices in the week before the election.

As much as 40 per cent of votes cast in Nevada and Colorado were cast early, said Mr Norek. “The Latino mom with her three kids in tow would happen to walk past a polling place and would be able to cast her vote.”

Mr Obama also won support from Latinos that have recently gained US citizenship. “We saw young Latino voters going to the polls with their grandparents who only recently became citizens,” said Jorge-Mario Cabrera, director of education at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. “We had 2.3m new registered voters in Los Angeles County and more than 40 per cent were Latino. That’s a sign of things to come for the rest of the country.”

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By MIRIAM JORDAN in Los Angeles and LESLIE EATON in Dallas, Wall Street Journal

Record turnout among Hispanic voters helped push Barack Obama over the top in an election that signals the emerging political clout of the nation’s fastest-growing demographic group.

About 10 million Hispanics cast a ballot, up from 7.8 million in the 2004 presidential contest, accounting for 8% of the national voting public, exit polls show. Latinos voted for Sen. Obama over Sen. John McCain nationally by 66% to 32%, marking a dramatic shift toward Democrats from 2004, when more than 50% supported Sen. John Kerry and 40% voted for President Bush.

More important, this election shattered the perception that Latino voters only have a powerful impact in their traditional stronghold of the Southwest. While Latinos were key to Sen. Obama’s victories in both Nevada and New Mexico, where he lost the non-Hispanic white vote, their support also was crucial in hotly contested states such as Virginia and Pennsylvania, where Latinos now represent about 5% of the voting population. In Florida, this election marked the first time that a Democratic presidential candidate won a majority of the Latino vote.

“This election proves Latinos are no longer just a political sideshow,” says Henry Cisneros, former secretary of Housing and Urban Development. “The Latino population is large enough that it moves the needle.”

This newfound clout is only expected to increase in the coming years, as the growth of the Hispanic population outpaces that of the rest of the nation. In 2016, Hispanics are expected to number about 60 million, up from 45 million today. And though Hispanics voted overwhelmingly Democratic this time around, they are likely to be courted heavily by both parties in the future.

“Twenty years from now Latinos will be twice as important as they are today,” says Matt Barreto, a political science professor at the University of Washington who does Hispanic polling.

He also noted that in the next presidential election, Latinos would emerge as an influential voting bloc in more states, such as North Carolina and Georgia. “Within the next decade, Latino voters could become decisive in several second-tier states,” says Prof. Barreto.

The Obama campaign spent heavily to court Latino voters, spending some $20 million, more than half of it on Spanish-language television and radio. It opened campaign offices in areas with a big Hispanic population, and trained Spanish-speaking grassroots workers who went door to door in Latino enclaves to drum up support for Mr. Obama, especially in battleground states.

Latino voters were the second most likely group to vote for Sen. Obama, after African-Americans. Support for Mr. Obama was strong among Latinos in all age groups. About one in five new voters were Hispanic, many of them immigrants who responded to a mass mobilization drive by Hispanic media and community groups to get out the vote. That energized Latino voters, who showed up at the polls in higher percentages than other newly registered voter groups. Relative to 2004, the total number of registered Hispanics soared by 144% in Nevada, 35% in Colorado, 34% in Florida and 30% in New Mexico.

In Florida, where 14% of voters are Latino, 57% of Hispanics backed Sen. Obama compared with 42% who favored the Democratic candidate in 2004, as the influence of older, conservative Cuban-Americans was eclipsed by young Cuban-Americans and South and Central American immigrants.

In the battleground state of Colorado, the Latino vote represented 17% of the voting public, with 73% of Latino voters supporting Sen. Obama. In New Mexico, Latinos constituted 41% of the voting population and 69% of them supported Sen. Obama. In Nevada, the Latino vote was 16% of the voting population, with 78% of them backing the Democratic candidate.

Sen. McCain had hoped to attract Hispanics with his pro-military, anti-abortion stances and his record in favor of immigration reform.

Sen. Obama faced a big initial challenge in attracting Hispanic voters, many of whom had thrown their support behind Sen. Hillary Clinton in the primaries. But the rancorous tone of the immigration debate, coupled with the economic downturn, eventually helped turn Hispanic voters toward Sen. Obama.

“The debate over immigration started driving Hispanic voters toward the Democratic party, and the economic black hole clinched it,” says Sergio Bendixen, a pollster who worked for the Democratic campaign.

Still, some Hispanic advocates believe that the Obama campaign’s success with Latino voters stems in large part from the groundwork laid by Sen. Clinton.

“Republicans have literally driven the fastest-growing group of new voters into the arms of a Democratic Party that hasn’t really worked that hard to get their votes,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, an immigrant advocacy group.

Ana Rendon, a 30-year-old office worker in Dallas, recently became a U.S. citizen and voted for the first time Tuesday. She didn’t want to reveal whom she voted for, but she was happy to say why she had gone to the polls: “For us to count here as Hispanics.”

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Written by Alex Garcia, San Fernando Valley Sun

New Voters could be the decisive force in this year’s presidential election. At least, that’s the assumption of several experts and studies that have come out recently, showing that in battle states, new voters, primarily made up by immigrants, could tip the scales one way or the other.

“We’ve been discussing this election as a historic election because of the candidates, an AfricanAmerican for president and a woman for vice president, but a third aspect of this is the emergence of this new electorate that provides a greater diversity in American democracy which we haven’t seen,” said Efrain Escobedo, of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO). “This new American electorate has been a pretty potent force and is beginning to reshape the political landscape”.

In particular, Escobedo notes the rise of the Latino voting block, which since last year has been increasingly becoming naturalized and registering to vote.

Their influence will be felt especially in states like Nevada, Florida, Colorado and New Mexico, “Battleground” states where senators Barack Obama and John McCain are fighting for every vote.

“Those states represent 46 electorate votes that could decide this election and those are states where the latino electorate have really been driving the new voter registration,” said Escobedo.

Laura Anduze, civic organizer with the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) agrees with Escobedo.

She noted that in 2004, there were 7.6 million Latinos voters and this year they expect that number to rise beyond 9 million.

“There were a lot of people who became citizens last year with the only intent of voting this year,” said Anduze.

Antonio Gonzalez, president of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project (SVREP), this week announced it had registered 126,777 latino voters in 14 states along with four other organizations, puts the immigrant vote impact further in the election.

“This is an historic moment for the Latino electorate,” said González, SVREP President. “We anticipate that Latinos will reach 12 million registrations and cast nearly 10 million votes in November, making certain that our community’s voices will make a difference in the critical upcoming elections. Latinos are concerned about the economy, want to see an end to the war in Iraq, and believe that access to health care, improved public education and legalization of undocumented immigrants are top tier issues.”

The voter registration drive was done in conjunction with the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the largest and oldest Hispanic organization in the United States; the Mexican American Political Association (MAPA); the National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities (NALACC); and the Hispanic Federation, the premier Latino federation of community- based organizations in the Northeast U.S.

Among the states targeted were AZ, CA, CO, CT, FL, IL, MO, NC, NJ, NM, NY, OH, PA and TX, including more than 25,000 in Florida; nearly 8,000 in New Mexico; 5,125 in Arizona and 4,437 in Colorado.

“Increasing the number of registered voters is key to Latinos determining their own destiny,” stated Rosa Rosales, LULAC President. “The voter registration effort is paramount to our ongoing effort to protect and defend the civil rights of the Latino community. The Latino electorate understands that its vote brings representation and resources to neighborhoods and communities that have historically been underrepresented and underserved.”

“These elections are far too important not to have our community participate as full and equal partners. We are proud to be part of this coalition that is helping increase - vote by vote - our voice across the nation,”stated Lillian Rodríguez López, Hispanic Federation President.

Dr. Fernando Guerra, Director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University also agrees new voters, and particularly latinos, could give the edge in the election for Obama, who is getting most of these votes.

“You have pockets of resistance, such as latino republicans and some older generations, but the majority are going for Obama,” he noted.

“McCain was a more appealing candidate than any other wanting the latino voters, he was moderate on immigration, comes from a southwestern state, but because his based pushed him to the right, he alienated latinos and they’re not as enthusiastic to vote for him as they were before,” said Guerra.

However, former U.S. Treasurer RosarioMarin, a noted republican who is now part of governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s cabinet, said people need to look at Sen. McCain’s history to see that his values and positions on issues are more compatible with immigrants’ than Sen. Obama’s.

“He is the only one who has clearly shown a clear and clean trajectory of helping immigrants and has shown an enormous desire for our advancement,” she said. “He has the temperament, the capacity and the experience to be president.”

Marin criticized Sen. Obama’s proposal to “spread the wealth” calling it a “socialist” idea that will not work and that “goes against everything this country stands for.”

She also questioned Obama’s readiness in case of a terrorist attack and said Sen. McCain has risked and dedicated his entire life to provide immigrants with the opportunities they enjoy in this country.

But not so, said Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO and a national co-chair of the Obama campaign.

“There’s not doubt that McCain has turned a lot of latinos for Obama because he changed his position on immigration reform. They saw that he wouldn’t even support his own legislation (Kennedy-McCain). Obama has been very clear. He and senator (ted) Kennedy were the two senators who marched in the demostrations two years ago. He has been very public in his support for immigrant issues.”

She added Sen. Obama also was against the war in Iraq since day one, something that a lot of new voters oppose and has the plan to create jobs.

“There is a strong sentiment and support of Obama, but we have to get them to the polls,” she said, adding that for the past three weeks and until election day, her organization has been doing phone banking.

“We have 170 volunteers Monday through Thursday calling voters in Nevada, Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and other battleground states making thousands of phone calls, calling union members to encourage them to get out to the polls,” she said.

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Sensing an opening because of conservatives’ hardline approach to immigration, Democrats are increasing their efforts to reach Hispanic voters in key Southwest states, a move they hope will help propel Sen. Barack Obama to the White House.

Republicans, however, aren’t ceding the Hispanic vote. Arizona Sen. John McCain, who will accept the Republican presidential nomination next week, is also aggressively courting Hispanic voters, looking to build upon inroads into the voting bloc made by President Bush - a former Texas governor - and his brother, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

However, Democrats think that Bush’s low approval ratings, the weakening of the Republican brand nationally, and a perception among some Hispanics that McCain has flip-flopped on comprehensive immigration reform, improve Obama’s chances with Hispanics in New Mexico, Nevada and Colorado. Hispanics make up about 12 percent of eligible voters in the Southwest - 37 percent in New Mexico.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who’s Hispanic, predicted at the Democratic convention Tuesday that Obama will get more than 70 percent of the national Hispanic vote, helped by big numbers in the Southwest.

To achieve their goals, Democrats and allied groups are bolstering their Hispanic voter-registration drives and increasing their radio and television advertising aimed at Hispanics, according to the Western Majority Project, a group formed by Democratic strategists to build upon electoral gains the party has made in the Southwest.

“What I’m seeing is a highly motivated and excited electorate eager to have their voices heard,” said Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union, which endorsed Obama. “Whether we come from Mexico, El Salvador, from Argentina, Panama or Puerto Rico, we all are united and understand that this election is about us, it’s about our families, our communities, and this is our chance to be heard.”

A survey done for the Western Majority Project found that Obama holds an overall 64 percent to 25 percent lead over McCain among Hispanics in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado.

A recent poll by the non-partisan Pew Research Center found Obama leading McCain among Hispanics nationally by 66 percent to 23 percent, which seems to answer questions raised during the Democratic primaries about whether Obama could attract Hispanic votes.

But several Hispanic officials and organizations warn that Obama shouldn’t consider heavy Hispanic support a lock.

“The big, big question for Latino voters is not whether Democrats will get the Latino votes. The question is what the margin will be,” said Cecilia Munoz, senior vice president for policy for the National Council of La Raza, a nonprofit Hispanic organization that fights poverty and discrimination. “If McCain gets 40 percent (of the Latino vote), he can win. And Senator McCain, though he may be behind, is not giving up and is running very hard in the Latino community.”

McCain is looking to follow in Bush’s footsteps with Hispanic voters. The president captured between 32 percent and 44 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004; analysts’ estimates vary. Bush’s Texas ties and understanding of Hispanic culture attracted voters.

McCain’s Arizona offers a sizeable Hispanic population, but he faces a challenge with Hispanic voters because of a perceived shift in his position on immigration. He helped craft a failed immigration-overhaul bill that included a guest-worker program that critics blasted as amnesty for illegal immigrants, but this year on the campaign trail he stressed securing America’s borders.

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Silverio “Silver” Salazar has been an active Democrat for decades, just like his cousins, U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar and U.S. Rep. John Salazar.

But for the 2008 presidential election, Silver Salazar is squarely behind John McCain.

Silver Salazar, who had served as a Pueblo precinct leader for 20 years, was a Hillary Clinton backer. So when Barack Obama clinched the Democratic nomination, he began to research McCain and liked what he read.

He chose McCain because of his experience and readiness to take office.

Now, Silver Salazar is working to convince Democrats and Hispanics to support the GOP nominee.

“I’m making history for myself,” said the 59-year-old retired steel company operations manager. “This is the first I’ll vote for a Republican president - or work for one.”

Silver Salazar has been publicly supporting McCain since early summer. He’s done national media interviews and attended campaign visits across Colorado. On Thursday, he spoke at a news conference in Pueblo with other Hispanics supporting McCain.

About a dozen Hispanic McCain backers also held a press conference in Denver.

Hispanics across Colorado and the U.S. typically vote Democratic. But President Bush took an estimated 40 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004, up from 34 percent in 2000.

A recent Rocky Mountain News/CBS4 News poll of Colorado voters found that 57 percent of Hispanics support Obama and 36 percent back McCain. The poll of 500 registered voters was taken Aug. 11 through 13 by Public Opinion Strategies and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.38 percentage points.

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A coalition of Hispanic groups offered its recommendations for both party’s platforms Thursday, including calls to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

According to John Trasvina, the chairman of the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, 26 of the group’s recommendations are already in the Democratic National Committee’s draft platform.

In explaining his group’s war opposition, Trasvina said that Latinos “are overrepresented in the military; many are immigrants who are fighting for our country before it becomes their country.”

The 24-member coalition includes the National Council of La Raza, MANA, the Cuban American National Council and the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement.

The coalition is pressing the Republican National Committee platform writers as well, Trasvina said, and its members will attend both party conventions.

The Hispanic platform makes more than 100 recommendations on education, civil rights, immigration, the economy, health and government accountability. Among them:

_ Publicize the Census Bureau’s confidentiality policy so that Latinos — whether legal immigrants or not — will cooperate in the 2010 census.

_ Grant citizenship to the country’s 12 million undocumented workers.

_ Increase Hispanic participation in the federal work force.

_ Enhance health-care access for immigrants, especially along the U.S.-Mexico border.

_Continue No Child Left Behind with more emphasis on Latino students.

The coalition recommended that No Child Left Behind be used to combat the high dropout rates among Latino high school students. “Our 20-20 vision starts today, and that is that we will close our drop-out rate,” Trasvina said at the press briefing.

Both political parties have been courting Latinos, who participated strongly in the primaries, said Susan Minushkin, the deputy director of the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research group in Washington.

Colorado, Florida, Nevada and New Mexico, where the 2004 presidential election was close, have large Hispanic populations, making them hot spots again this election, Minushkin said.

“I would say this year there is much more of an interest in the Latino vote than there has been ever in the past,” Trasvina said. “The community is larger and in more states, and the voting participation is higher than it’s ever been. I think this year there will be more consequences if the Latino vote and the Latino leaders are not listened to.”

However, Andy Gomez, assistant provost at the University of Miami and senior fellow at the university’s Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, cautioned against assuming that Latinos — especially in the second- and third-generation — vote solely on the kinds of issues listed in the coalition’s report.

“The Hispanic community is looking to see which is the particular candidate that first and foremost addresses the immediate needs of the United States,” Gomez said in an interview.

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Barack Obama’s national campaign co-chair Federico Pena says that a $20 million outreach to Hispanic voters is “historic” and will help secure an Obama victory on Election Day.

The former Denver mayor adds that Colorado – along with other key battleground states of Arizona, Nevada, Florida and New Mexico – will get a higher percentage of the funds. Nationally, Pena believes this could translate into 10 million Hispanic votes.

The Democratic National Committee made the announcement today at a press conference with Sen. Ken Salazar. The money, which has not yet been earmarked, will be spent between now and November on advertising, voter registration as well as get-out-the-vote efforts aimed at Latinos. This comes after the Pew Hispanic Center recently released a survey showing that Obama had a 66%-23% lead over Republican rival Sen. John McCain.
The McCain camp, however, fired back as Florida Republican Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart defended the Arizona senator’s record, saying “Unlike Barack Obama, John McCain doesn’t need an introduction to the Hispanic Community.”

Because of Proposition 300, most of those kids can’t afford a college education in Arizona. On this page and the next, you will meet some of them and understand why community and business leaders have decided to fund their tuition costs, as best we can, until the DREAM Act becomes law.

Two years ago, Arizona voters approved Prop. 300. It makes university students who are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents, or who do not have lawful immigration status, ineligible for state-funded or subsidized financial aid. It also requires them to pay out-of-state tuition, which is currently about $18,000 a year at Arizona State University. In-state tuition is about $5,500.

Undocumented students can still go to college. But a $12,000 tuition increase and the lack of financial aid means most of them cannot afford a college education without a lot of help.

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In today’s wacky dessert world, in which paying $3 for a dolled-up cupcake is de rigueur, the next hot thing actually is a humble snack with a storied tradition: churros.

Spurred by an explosion of interest in all things Latino, the fried batons of dough — traditionally sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar — are popping up on menus across the country. When the president’s daughter serves churros at her wedding, it’s probably safe to say they have hit the mainstream.

Jenna Bush definitely is not alone. Entrepreneurs and big-name chefs have hopped onto the bandwagon, too, and have pushed this modest, deep-fried snack into the spotlight.

These days you can find churros on menus from coast to coast, from West LA’s well-loved Literati 2 (helmed by Chris Kidder, formerly of Campanile) to New York’s trendy Dos Caminos.

Churros are believed to have their origins in Spain, though they’re also extremely popular in Mexico and other parts of Latin America, where they’re found at street carts, markets and cafes.

The key to their appeal is their distinctive ridges, achieved with the help of a churrera , an extruder with a star-shape attachment. When the thick batter is pressed and dropped into boiling-hot oil, each ridge fries up wonderfully crisp, giving the churro its texture — crunchy on the outside, soft and almost creamy inside.

A number of businesses have sprung up to accommodate the booming interest in the U.S.

“Five years ago, there were lots and lots of people who’d never heard of a churro, and many of the people who did know what one was had had one at Disneyland or at a ballpark,” said Melanie Farkas, the owner of the 5-year-old Churro Station franchise based in San Rafael, Calif.

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