TESTIMONY BEFORE THE NEW JERSEY STATE APPORTIONMENT COMMISSION

DELIVERED AND SUBMITTED BY:

William Colón, President and CEO

The Latino Institute, Inc.

Buenas noches, and good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to present remarks tonight regarding the issue at hand, the process of creating a new map to apportion New Jersey’s legislative districts according to the new demographics of this state.

We know that Latinos are the largest minority group now comprising about 18 percent of the population, at over 1.5 million persons. The new census figures show that Latinos are now living and working in all areas of New Jersey. Basically, there is not a town or borough of significant population that do not have a fair representation of Latinos.

I want you to remember, however, that the census is a picture, or photo, taken at a particular time, and the figures you see today are not static, but dynamic. There more Latinos today in the state of New Jersey than there were in 2010, and there will be more Latinos tomorrow, than there are today.

I can state that assertion with certainty, as our birth rate is higher than the general population, and the migration of Latinos to New Jersey will continue.

Let’s just look at just one more fact: the federal government grants about 1 million green cards per year, of those, about 600,000 are granted to people coming from Latin America, legally. We know that a great majority of them then follow up with the naturalization process, citizenship, and full participation in our civic endeavors.

In addition, there are tens of thousands of people here who came in undocumented, but who are now working very hard to legalize their status, and they, too, will soon be citizens and voters.

Since New Jersey has such a large base of Latinos, like it or not, we will continue to grow.

As a matter of fact, as the NALEO organization, has pointed out, without the growth of the Latino population in New Jersey during the last 10 years, the state would have lost two congressional seats instead of one.

Therefore, the way you divide the map is critical to our immediate and long term future and you should do it very carefully.

I want to declare here my support for the principles enunciated last January 29^th by Mr. Frank Argote Freyre, President of the Latino Action Network who criticized the “packing” strategy (that of concentrating minority voters into fewer districts) which could result in limiting the number of  Latino Legislators. This, in effect, is separating white voters from minority voters.

Since I cannot say any better, I quote from Mr. Freyres’ testimony:

“First, we want districts in which the Latino population is significant-significant enough to make it likely that Latinos will have at least one member on a three-member slate, and significant enough to mean that all of the elected representatives of those districts have to listen to the Latino community. As best as possible, we want the Latino population distributed in sufficient numbers to have influence in as many districts as possible.

Second, in parts of the state in which there is a smaller Latino population, we oppose “cracking” –the process of diluting Latino voices by separating small populations into different districts. Instead, we want to make sure that Latino communities are kept intact to both allow popular Latino candidates with appeal outside the community to win and to require all legislators from those districts to be attentive to Latino issues.”

This matter of listening to us is very important. Unfortunately, more often than not, some members of the New Jersey Legislature act as if their Latino constituents did not exist. Others simply ignore our issues, as they feel they can afford to ignore us. In the very near future, we hope that no legislator would have that luxury, as there will be more of us elected to the legislature.

As former Assemblyman Wilfredo Caraballo noted in a recent Opinion Ed, there are now substantial Latino populations in almost all 21 counties. We are represented in every age group, every profession, every level of educational achievement, and every level of income.

And we are a continually growing force.

New Jersey is a very diverse state, with close to 40 percent of its population composed of people of color.

Recognize that reality. What is today and what it will be tomorrow. Be fair, be just. Provide for a legislature with true representation of our population, one which will respond to our voices.