In the report, three Council on Foreign Relations researchers also explained that the falloff in the amount of illegal immigration is just partly the result of border security being tougher.

However, two-thirds of the reason for the drop is due to economic changes taking place in both the U.S. and Mexico that have made the migration north for Mexicans less attractive than before.

The authors wrote it was surprising how little is known regarding the actual border security and how small an effort the current administration and Washington lawmakers have made in attempting to make the security stronger, especially at a time when the new immigration bill depends upon improved border security.

Regardless of the efforts of the Border Patrol, some immigrants are going to make it into the U.S. from Mexico unseen. However, the report shows that border security has increased in the past 10 years and the likelihood of some crossing illegally and being caught is between 50% and 60%, which is an increase from 2000, when it was between 30% and 45%.

The Senate’s Judiciary Committee started last week working through the immigration bill that is 867 pages in length. They already closed out the section on border security after making just minor changes.

The committee shot down the repeated efforts of Republicans to stiffen security measures at the border or to insist on the borders being secure prior to giving legal status to current undocumented immigrants.

Those two measures were defeated 12-6 with all 10 Democrats and 2 Republicans voting in opposition.

Romney claimed that he lost last week’s election to Obama partly because of Obama’s strategy of giving gifts to the three groups of voters who were most influential in the results of last week’s presidential election: African American, Hispanics and young voters. Romney said that single women selected Obama because of his stance on subsidized birth control pills and that Hispanics sided with Obama because of his lax stance on immigration.

In a telephone call with hundreds of his supporters Romney said because of the gifts they received, these three groups were motivated to get up, get out and vote.

Romney’s analysis echoed what was taped secretly in May at one of his fundraisers where he told supporters that close to 47% of the U.S. electorate would not vote for him since they were not having to pay taxes and were dependent upon help from the federal government. His running mate, Paul Ryan made the assertion that Obama’s victory was thanks to the urban voter.

In his call on Wednesday, Romney said young voters were motivated to vote for Obama because of loan interest that was forgiven on loans for college, the extended health coverage they received until age 26 on their parents coverage and free coverage given them for contraception.

Romney said Obama promised healthcare coverage to everyone and that helped motivate support from African Americans and Obama’s executive order stopping the deportation of young undocumented immigrants helped him win the Hispanic vote.

Jon Huntsman Utah Governor and former U.S. Ambassador said his party’s message about economics is sound, but he also said his party needed to do better at reaching out to minority voters and moving away from social issues.

Huntsman said that he has been married 30 years and has seven children so people can see how he lives his life. He said he has no need to rub that into other people’s faces.

He said the nation wants to find ways for solutions. Now it is not about the left or the right, continued Huntsman, but about solutions to the many problems that are becoming harder and harder to solve, as Congress does not seem to be able to work together.

Carlos Gutierrez is a former Commerce Secretary and advised former Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney on outreach to Hispanics. He said that Republicans must move away from legislation that would make the official language in the U.S. English and other legislation that scares and upsets Hispanic voters.

Gutierrez said the party is one of prosperity and growth and that is where things like immigration come into play. He continued by saying the party needed to be one of immigration and should be the ones that lead the push for comprehensive immigration reform. Gutierrez warned that Republicans were scaring the Hispanic voters and that they are more and more an important voting bloc that needs to be courted.

However, Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington said she did not think the Republicans had to be moderate, insisting it was communication and not policy that had to be adjusted. She believes the vision and values of the party have to be taken to every corner of the country regardless of demographics.

Many of the Hispanics have migrated to support the Democrats and especially President Obama because of the hard stance many republicans have made on immigration. The reelection campaign for Obama is counting heavily on the Hispanic vote to gain victory in a number of important states like Nevada, North Carolina, Virginia, Iowa and Colorado.

During the debate last week, it was apparent how important the Hispanics as a group during the election and how immigration has become such an important issue during the election.

Obama told viewers during the debate that his Republican challenger Mitt Romney was hard right on immigration during the primaries for the GOP and even said immigration reform needed to start with self-deportation.

Obama also said that Romney received advice on immigration from the same lawyer who helped the state of Arizona draft its highly controversial immigration law. Romney told viewers that Obama had promised he would pass an overhaul of immigration laws but in his four years as president had failed to do so.

Romney’s campaign has said that the Hispanics are a good draw for his ticket since they are enduring close to 10% unemployment, which is about 2% higher than the national average. Romney’s son Craig, who speaks fluent Spanish, said the group is struggling and understands that the current president has failed to live up to his promises and they need someone who knows how to create new jobs.

The Pew Center asked this question regarding same-sex marriage for just the first time in the new survey. The nationwide survey said that 52% of all registered Hispanics said they were in favor of same-sex marriage, while only 34% said they opposed the measure. Only six years ago, the percentages were completely reversed with more than 56% saying they opposed same sex marriage and just 31% said they supported it.

The new survey found also that 54% of Hispanic Catholics are in support of same sex marriage and only 25% of Evangelicals who are Hispanic support the measure. Amongst Hispanics that do not have any religious affiliation, 71% favored same sex marriage.

The new survey was in line with other past surveys with regard to Hispanic voters and what candidate they support. Registered Hispanic voters overwhelmingly favor President Obama over his challenger Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate. Of those that answered the survey 69% said they supported Obama while only 21% support Romney.

Amongst religious groups, 75% of all Catholic Hispanics and 80% of Latinos that are not affiliated with any religion said they supported Obama, while 50% of all Evangelical Hispanics supported the President. Amongst Hispanic Evangelicals, only 39% said they supported Romney.

The Hispanic electorate in the U.S. consists of 23.7 million eligible voters or approximately 11% of all eligible voters in the country. That figure is 4 million higher than it was in the last national election in 2008.

President Barack Obama leads in Nevada 78% to 17% amongst the Hispanic voters, according to Latino Decisions’ latest survey. Latino Decisions is a political opinion firm that specializes in research. Breaking down the number in Nevada, it shows that 69% of the voters said they are completely sure they will support President Obama, while the other 9% said they were leaning towards voting for the president.

On Romney’s side, 15% said they are definitely voting for the former governor of Massachusetts, while two percent said they were leaning towards the GOP candidate.

In Florida, the race is tighter than Nevada. The Cuban-American population in south Florida, who are generally right-leaning, make up a large section of the Hispanic vote, unlike in Nevada. The Hispanic population in Nevada is made up primarily of Mexican-Americans that tend to lean more left.

In Florida, 61% of the Hispanic voters said they back President Obama, of that 61% over 56% said they were certain they would vote for Obama. Backing Romney are 31% of the Hispanic voters, with 27% of the 31% saying they were 100% convinced they would vote for Romney.

Both of the latest polls showed that the big issue for Hispanics is the economy, but immigration was a close second. The results also showed that the issue of immigration is personal for a number of the Hispanic voters. Sixty-nine percent of those surveyed in Nevada and 49% of those surveyed in Florida said they know an undocumented individual.

One of the largest advocacy groups for Hispanics, National Council of La Raza, said that the U.S. economy’s health was tied closely to the strength of the Hispanic workforce. Hispanics form 16% of the entire labor force in the U.S. and that figure is projected to increase to 18% before 2018. Hispanic workers are estimated at this time to be more than 21.3 million.

The Hispanic workforce in the U.S. is also less likely to have a college degree than blacks or whites and they generally earn less money. On average, Hispanic men earn only 66 cents for each dollar earned by white men.

Hispanic women earn only 60 cents per dollar. The sectors of employment where Hispanics are overrepresented include construction, agriculture, meatpacking and the service industry.

On Tuesday, a member of the National Council of the Raza said the Hispanic workforce would represent a third of the entire U.S. workforce by 2050.

A need for a workforce of less skilled employees in food service, farming and car washing resulted in a surge of Hispanics working in lower-wage jobs. Many Hispanic immigrants, more often than not with less or very little schooling took those types of jobs.

This group of workers will be affected by the election through initiatives for smaller businesses, collective bargaining agreements and the increased enforcement of violations in the workplace.

Hispanics have begun to influence state and local elections by supporting certain candidates or running for office themselves. They play large roles in both electing members of Congress and the President of the U.S.

A new report by the Pew Hispanic Center showed that more than 23.7 million Hispanics would be eligible on November 6 to vote. That means they are over 18 years of age and are U.S. citizens. It is a 22% increase from the 19.5 million that were eligible during the 2008 election.

Both President Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney have gone after the Hispanic vote aggressively. The turnout however of Hispanic voters was lower as a group at 50%, in 2008 than that of white voters, who turned out at a rate of 66% and black voters who turned at a 65% rate.

In addition, the voter registration for Hispanics between 2008 and 2010, for midterm elections, decreased significantly. Over 600,000 fewer Hispanics registered in the midterm election than registered for the 2008 presidential election just two years prior.

The new report by the Pew Center suggests that two factors could have led to less Hispanics registering to vote: a reduction in enthusiasm for an election that does not include the president, and a downturn in the economy that displaced a number of Hispanics and caused problems with having current valid voter registration information.

Whether that downward trend continues into the 2012 election is unknown, since voter registration data nationally is not available until following the election. However, four states have published voter sign-up information showing an increase in the number of Hispanics registering since the last presidential election in 2008. In the key battleground state of Florida, 1.6 million Hispanics have registered before July 15, which was an increase of more than 300,000 that had registered to vote in the presidential election of 2008.

Although Ryan did not offered any details over how the GOP ticket would change policy in Cuba, the tough rhetoric was enough for him to receive a strong applause from the many supporters who came to hear him speak.

A large number of legislators who are Spanish speaking from Florida, including Mario Diaz-Balart, Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lethinen gave Ryan much praise. Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and Romney’s youngest son Craig, who speaks Spanish fluently were also there to help rev up the supporters.

Ryan said he has colleagues on Capitol Hill who are Cuban-American have explained to him how brutal the regime in Cuba has been, and how the current president’s appeasement program with Cuba is not functioning correctly.

Ryan said under a Romney administration they will be hard on Castro and they will help the different pro-democracy associations that exist. He said being tough on both Chavez and Castro is the correct policy for the U.S.

Romney also took a hard line that was similar to Ryan’s against the regime in Cuba when speaking to the U.S. Cuba Democracy PAC during a January trip for Florida’s primary. He noted he was waiting the death of Fidel Castro.

Those kinds of speeches play well with a number of the many Cuban-Americans living in South Florida, who believe the decision by President Obama to end the embargo for travel to Cuba has benefitted Castro, as it helps his economy.

Joshua Hoyt is the co-president of National Partnership of New Americans and is one of over 800 activists, experts and leaders in the community that gathered in Baltimore for a conference on immigrant integration. At the Baltimore conference, speakers have pointed at how important it is for Hispanics to get out and vote.

Hoyt said the Hispanics must vote and either reward politicians for what they have done for the community or punish them for what they have not done. Participants at the conference fear that demobilization exists. Some say many Hispanics are frustrated that immigration reform has not taken place during Obama’s first term, while others simply are not used to voting since it has been so long since they last voted.

Activists are urging community leaders to make the effort and try to convince Hispanics how important it is they vote. Many feel that if Obama is re-elected immigration reform will take place because Republicans will see they have lost the Hispanic vote and will want to take action and reform immigration to win that vote back.

Hoyt says that if Obama is re-elected, the entire Hispanic community must pressure him until he takes action on immigration and does something for the Hispanic community.

The conference is also discussing the deferred action program. Many are worried that if Mitt Romney the Republican presidential nominee is elected that he might stop or change the program.

Hoyt however, said that he feels Romney would not change the program, as he will want to make sure he is re-elected after four years and will want the support of all young Hispanics going forward.