Political gerrymandering is a major hurdle in passing immigration reform. After the 2010 Census, Congressional districts were designed to insure significant majorities for incumbents. This led to white districts getting significantly whiter. Today, only a couple of dozen Republicans in the House of Representative represent districts with Latino populations approaching the national average. According to Bloomberg News:
Four in five Republican House members represent districts with Hispanic populations below the national average of 16.7 percent for all districts.
Democrats, who often represent urban areas, remain much more likely to have a larger proportion of Hispanics in their districts. When all Republican districts are averaged together, the data show Hispanics account for 11.4 percent of the population, compared to 22.9 percent for Democrats.
In the 2012 presidential election, Latino voters represented 10 percent of the electorate, up from 9 percent four years earlier. Obama captured 71 percent of that vote, the exit polling showed, while Romney won 27 percent—down from the Republican share of 31 percent in 2008, 44 percent in 2004 and 35 percent in 2000.
