Statistics That Explain GOP White Nativism

First, Republican seats in the House of Representative have significantly lower foreign-born populations compared to seats held by Democrats. This suggests why Republican lawmakers prefer anti-immigration policies more than Democrats. Support: Caitlin Owens & Chris Canipe, Two Americas: Republican Districts Have Far Fewer Immigrants, AXIOS (Feb. 6, 2018).

Second, foreign-born residents in the United States U.S. are overwhelmingly nonwhite.  Census data from 2016 indicate among the foreign-born population in the United States U.S.—totaling 43,681,654—7,895,629 people were “White Only” (18.1%).   This means that the term foreign-born population in the United States U.S. refers to a group that is more than 80 eighty percent people of color. Support: Jynnah Radford & Abby Budiman, 2016, Foreign-Born Population in the United States Statistical Portrait PEW. RES. CTR. (Sept. 14, 2018). Census data from 2016 indicate among the foreign-born population in the U.S.—totaling 43,681,654—only 7,895,629 people were “White Only” (18.1%). The breakdown shows 19,595,412 “Hispanic”; 7,895,629 “White Alone, Not Hispanic”; 3,660,002 “Black Alone, Not Hispanic”; 11,569,405 “Asian Alone, Not Hispanic”; and 961,206 “Other, Not Hispanic.”

Third, racial gerrymandering that results from Republican map-drawing is common in the United States U.S., and usually packs Democrats into few districts to dilute their broader electoral influence.  Support: Alabama Legislative Black Caucus v. Alabama (2015), and Shaw v. Hunt, (1996) (Supreme Court struck down GOP drawn election maps improperly used race to draw a majority-black district, and dilute black voting power); and Kenneth W. Shotts, Does Racial Redistricting Cause Conservative Policy Outcomes? Policy Preferences of Southern Representatives in the 1980s and 1990s, 65 J. POL. 216, 224-25 (2003); Charles Cameron, et al., Do Majority-Minority Districts Maximize Substantive Black Representation in Congress?, 93 AM. POL. SCI. REV. 794, 807, 809 (1996); and Kevin A. Hill, Does the Creation of Majority Black Districts Aid Republicans? An Analysis of the 1992 Congressional Elections in Eight Southern States, 57 J. POL. 384, 394 (1995).