Number of California's potential immigrant voters to swell

The analysis, commissioned by a Bay Area immigrant support group, is seen as a political road map to maximize the state's pro-immigrant vote. It also undergirds efforts to intensify political and civic action to help immigrants better integrate into society and win comprehensive legislative reforms, long stalled in Congress.

"We hope policymakers will look at this data to see who is in their district and how to best serve their interests," said Daranee Petsod, executive director of Grantmakers Concerned With Immigrants and Refugees, a Sebastopol, Calif.-based organization.

"With these numbers, immigrants can invigorate our democracy."

Los Angeles County dwarfed all others with about 2.7 million potential pro-immigrant voters -- naturalized U.S. citizens, legal immigrants eligible for citizenship and their children ages 12 to 17 -- followed by Orange, Santa Clara and San Diego counties. Statewide, the total was nearly 7.7 million.

In the Los Angeles area, the San Gabriel Valley had the highest number of such potential voters.

The immigrant voters and their teenage children, who are overwhelmingly Latino and Asian American, made up about one-third of the electorate in state Assembly and Senate districts held by Democrats and about one-fifth of Republican districts.

The analysis was conducted by Rob Paral, a Chicago demographer who charted a similar political road map in Illinois. It was based on 2006 data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Homeland Security.

Joshua Hoyt of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights said Paral's work there has enabled immigrant advocates to launch targeted political action that has helped swing seven state legislative districts and one congressional district from Republican to Democratic since 2002.

Statewide, the Republican district with the largest number of potential pro-immigrant voters is held by state Sen. Bob Margett of Glendora. Nearly one-third of his 29th District, which includes much of the San Gabriel Valley, is made up of such potential voters.

But Margett co-sponsored efforts to create a state border police force and voted against bills to give driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants and to recognize the contributions of immigrants by declaring May 1 as "The Great American Boycott 2006 Day."