Who are American students who are no longer the majority? by Dr. Rogelio Saenz

Friends,

I am pleased to share this timely op-ed by demographer Dr. Rogelio Sáenz, who calls attention to a revealing and consequential misuse of language in discussions of the nation’s changing student population. When Latino students are contrasted with “American students,” the implication is that they are somehow foreign to the country in which the overwhelming majority were born, raised, and educated.

As Sáenz makes clear, the demographic shift taking place in our schools is not from “American” to “non-American” students, but from a white majority to an increasingly diverse student body. Getting this language right matters—especially amid a political climate in which Latinos and other communities of color are routinely portrayed as outsiders rather than as integral members of the American public.

-Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

Who are American students who are no longer the majority?

by Rogelio Saenz | July 12, 2026 | The American Bazaar

I read with great interest the article titled “American students are no longer majority in schools” written by Jayujyoti Mullick which appeared in The American Bazaar last month on June 14. This is an interesting article but there is confusion about who actually are American students who are no longer the majority in U.S. schools.

Mullick argues that “American students who are neither Latino nor multiracial represented fewer than 50% of students enrolled from nursery school through graduate programs in 2024.” Later in the essay, Mullick reports that “Between 2012 and 2022, Hispanic students increased from 24% to 29% of public-school enrollment, while American students fell from 51% to 44%.’ Still later Mullick notes “College participation also trails that of American students, with 37.3% of Hispanic young adults ages 20 and 21 enrolled in college compared with 53.9% of their American peers.”

READ: Four Indian American students win 2026 Harvard Hoopes Prize (May 6, 2026)

Put simply, Mullick’s essay indicates that Latino students are not American. The reality is that the large majority of Latinos enrolled in school are U.S.-born. According to the 2024 American Community Survey (ACS), among students enrolled in school in 2024, 91 percent of Latinos 0-17 years of age were born in the U.S., as is the case with 88 percent of those ages 18 to 24 and 78 percent of those ages 25 to 34 years of age. Hardly non-American people! Under the current politically divisive climate along with the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign, clear demarcations have been established between the “us” and “them”—people who “belong here” and those with who “don’t belong here.” The misleading information in the essay fuels divisive fires which, for many, justifies reasons for deporting people when, supposedly, “they are actually taking over our schools!”

READ: US visa uncertainty pushes Indian students to consider other countries (June 30, 2026)

The reality is that non-white, rather than non-American, students now make up the majority of students in U.S. schools. As such, non-white students consisting not only of Latinos, but also Blacks, American Indians and Alaska Natives, Asians, Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders, and multiracial people, now are the majority in K-12 and college undergraduate enrollment, outnumbering white students. In 2024, according to 2024 ACS data, whites accounted for a slight majority (50.8%) of students enrolled in graduate and professional schools. Many of these non-white students are American—either born in this country, people who are naturalized citizens, and still others who are not citizens but have lived in this country for extensive portions of their lives.

Rogelio Sáenz is professor in the Department of Sociology and Demography at the University of Texas at San Antonio. His opinions and analysis expressed here are his own and not those of the University of Texas at San Antonio.

One in 20 Latinos Not Counted in Census: Why It Matters by Rogelio Saenz, Latino Rebels, 4.20.2022

Dr. Rogelio Saenz addresses in this piece how the Latino population is currently experiencing  a taking away of the franchise. This happens through various mechanisms, including through gerrymandering and Voter ID laws. What demographer Saenz shows is how the decennial 2020 U.S. Census itself was politicized, resulting in what is now a grievous and consequential undercount to the shocking tune of 3.3 million people: 

"Ultimately, the Supreme Court permitted Trump to terminate the census ahead of its original deadline. 

A major casualty of Trump’s dirty hand: one of 20 Latinos were not counted. Unfortunately, the consequence of the damage that Trump sowed against the Latino population is not short-term. 

The deafening absence of the 3.3 million Latinos who were not enumerated has a long shelf life—10 years. The census takes place every 10 years to apportion the seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and to distribute federal funds based on the population count. Therefore, during the next decade, Latinos will be underrepresented politically at the federal, state, and local levels."

This is the kind of thing we mean when we in the academic community use phrases like "structured oppression." It all becomes not only further oppressive but more bizarre when those behind these structures then seek to legislate away the thought and thusly, the memory, of any such oppressions while casting themselves as the "aggrieved party." 

This is what fascism is and what fascism does, my friends.

And then, according to opinion columnist Michelle Goldberg in the New York Times in a piece titled, "The Awful Advent of Reactionary Chic," some in Austin's, Miami's, and Manhattan's tech outposts, it has become "edgy and cool" to be "anti-woke." 

Yes it's twisted and messed up. It's a "prettying-up" of fascism, no doubt.

When do facts and truth about actual oppression within colonial matrices of power ever enter the equation? Deceit, corruption, and white supremacist logics are at the heart of U.S. Census politics. They seek to protect the incumbencies of those in power at any cost.

For the rest of us who oppose fascism and believe in democracy, let's clear the smoke, pull down the curtains, and take back our power—albeit to have power with, as opposed to having power over, the larger society.

-Angela Valenzuela

#Vote2022

 

One in 20 Latinos Not Counted in Census: Why It Matters 

by

Rogelio Saenz, Latino Rebels | April 20, 2022

 AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File 

The Census Bureau recently reported the results of its analysis concerning the precision of its count of the nation’s population in the 2020 census. In the aggregate, the count was just 0.2 percent below the population estimate of the country, signifying that approximately 782,000 persons were not counted. 

An extraordinary feat—almost all persons in the nation were counted in the midst of a pandemic. However, the devil is in the details. On the one hand, whites and Asians were overcounted by 1.6 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively. 

On the other hand, Indigenous peoples, Latinos, and African Americans were undercounted. In the case of Latinos, one out of every 20 was not counted. This translates to nearly 3.3 million Latinos not counted nationally, equivalent to the entire population of Utah. 

It is clear that the tally of uncounted Latinos is considerable and not merely a drop. 

 But Why Were They Not Counted? The reason is a confluence of factors due to the pandemic and, definitely, politics. 

 First, the pandemic has been cruel, but especially ferocious against the Latino population. At the time of the final deadline for the submission of the census questionnaire, October 15, 2020, 128,000 Latinos had already lost their lives to COVID-19, and our rate of death was twice that of whites. 

 In addition, then-President Trump used all forms of politics to threaten undocumented Latinos and their families so that they would not participate in the census. Indeed, he attempted, without success, to insert a citizenship question in the census and to exclude unauthorized persons from the numbers used for redistricting. Never mind that the U.S. Constitution requires, by law, that every person living in this country be counted. 

Ultimately, the Supreme Court permitted Trump to terminate the census ahead of its original deadline. 

A major casualty of Trump’s dirty hand: one of 20 Latinos were not counted. Unfortunately, the consequence of the damage that Trump sowed against the Latino population is not short-term. 

The deafening absence of the 3.3 million Latinos who were not enumerated has a long shelf life—10 years. The census takes place every 10 years to apportion the seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and to distribute federal funds based on the population count. Therefore, during the next decade, Latinos will be underrepresented politically at the federal, state, and local levels. 

Furthermore, the Republican Party in many parts of the nation, especially in Texas, has used a variety of tactics to suppress and minimize the Latino vote including the enactment of voter ID laws and gerrymandering. Moreover, due to Latinos not being adequately counted in the census, our Latino community will lose significant amounts of federal funds over the next 10 years. 

Is There a Remedy? Over the decades, there has been a consistent undercount of Latinos and other persons of color in the census. Regularly, after each census, advocacy organizations for people of color have called for a statistical adjustment to better reflect the actual enumeration of the population. 

Historically, these demands have been rejected. However, the U.S. Census Bureau has some of the best statisticians in the world, including Robert Santos, the first person of color to direct the agency. 

The scientific knowledge and capacity to make this statistical correction exists. We need to demand that this measure be taken to correct this wrong. A Spanish version of this essay was recently published in La Voz de Austin. 

 *** Rogelio Sáenz is a sociologist and demographer. He is a professor in the Department of Demography at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

A Milestone of Misery: More Than 100K US Latinos Have Died From COVID-19 by Dr. Rogelio Sáenz

Dr. Rogelio Sáenz captures well the devastating impact of COVID on the Latino community in the U.S. Just reading this makes me sad. It seems that we all know of, or have, someone close that lost someone dear to them. And not just in this country, but in Mexico and Latin America, as well.

So much trauma. So much loss. Our families will be impacted by, and recovering from, this for many years, indeed decades, to come.

-Angela Valenzuela

A Milestone of Misery: More Than 100K US Latinos Have Died From COVID-19

By Rogelio Sáenz

April 15, 2021, 6:04 PM

In this June 13, 2020, photo, a man walks past Our Lady of Guadalupe church in Guadalupe, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)

More than 100,000 U.S. Latinos have now lost their lives to COVID-19. This past week we went over this lamentable threshold. It took about ten months for 50,000 Latinos to die from the pandemic, but it only took four months to add another 50,000.

While Latinos have died from COVID-19 in every state except in Vermont (where very few Latinos live), a little more than half of the 100,000 Latino deaths have occurred in California and Texas. More than 29,000 Latinos have died in California and more than 23,000 in Texas. In fact, more Latinos than whites have died from the pandemic in these two states. The numbers are also quite large in five other states, including New York with nearly 11,000 deaths, Florida with nearly 7,900, Arizona with more than 4,700, New Jersey with a little more than 4,600, and Illinois with close to 3,400 deaths. These five states along with California and Texas account for more than four of five Latinos who have lost their lives to COVID-19 (Figure 1).

I have been tracking the impact of the pandemic on Latinos since back in late March. With more than 100,000 Latinos succumbing to COVID-19, it is time to reflect on what has taken place during the pandemic.

One thing that is pretty clear is that while the Latino numbers are quite devastating, they hide the horror that has befallen the Latino community. At first glance, it appears that the pandemic has taken Latino and white lives evenly. There are 3.3 times as many whites as Latinos in the country and among people who have died from COVID-19. However, Latinos with a median age of 30 are a much more youthful population compared to whites whose median age is 44. More than one in five whites are 65 or older compared to one of 13 Latinos. As such, whites are much more concentrated in ages where the risk of dying from COVID-19 is particularly high.

Once we adjust for these age differences, Latinos thus far have died at a rate that is 2.4 times higher than whites. The situation is much worse in California where Latinos are dying from the pandemic at a rate that is 3.5 times higher than whites.

The demography of COVID-19 fatalities is quite revealing. Nationally, nearly nine of ten whites who have died from the pandemic were 65 or older compared to fewer than two of three Latinos. Among the Latino dead, 26 percent were 50 to 64 years of age compared to 10 percent of whites. And more than 9 percent of Latino deceased were less than 50 years of age compared to fewer than 2 percent of whites. These major variations reflect the disproportionate presence of Latinos on the frontlines where they do not have the luxury of being able to work from home.

Don't deport Venezuelans. Grant them temporary U.S. visas by Lourdes Gouveia and Rogelio Saenz

I agree that the political crisis in Venezuela with asylum requests soaring from "5,600 in 2015 to nearly 28,000 in 2017," deporting them will only aggravate the situation there and contribute further to hemispheric instability, deepening an already severe humanitarian crisis along the U.S.-Mexico border.

-Angela Valenzuela

Don't deport Venezuelans. Grant them temporary U.S. visas. | Opinion

Deporting Venezuelans will only aggravate the humanitarian crisis the U.S. government says it’s trying to solve. Absent more stable alternative solutions, Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans makes sense and is urgently needed,. writes the op-ed author. (Wayne K. Roustan / Sun Sentinel)

By Lourdes Gouveia and Rogelio Sáenz| April 30, 2019 | South Florida Sun Sentinal 

The number of Venezuelans coming to the United States to escape the festering political and economic crises in their country is soaring. As Venezuela falls into deeper chaos and the Trump administration steps up its hostility toward immigrants, their future in the U.S. is uncertain.

Today, approximately 11 percent of Venezuelans are living abroad and the United Nations projects that the percentage will continue to rise.

Today, approximately 11 percent of Venezuelans are living abroad and the United Nations projects that the percentage will continue to rise.

The number of Venezuelan arrivals in the U.S. has grown dramatically over the last decade. According to the American Community Survey, the volume of Venezuelan migrants arriving here soared from 4,700 in 2007 to 49,000 in 2017, more than a 10-fold increase and the highest level of growth among all Latino nationality groups.

Life is increasingly dire for Venezuelans in the U.S., a message that we heard repeatedly from many of the Florida-based Venezuelans we have surveyed since 2012.

This is particularly true of the last wave of Venezuelan arrivals, whom we call “precarious migrants.” They left after the 2013 oil crisis and Nicolás Maduro’s ascendance to power. Prior arrivals reported investing substantial sums of money in legal fees hoping to avoid “illegality.” Typically, they’d hop from one status to another, negotiating a complex assortment of visas, all lacking a path to permanent residency. Inevitably, many have fallen into undocumented status. Today, among all visitors entering the U.S. from Latin America, Venezuelans have the highest overstay rates and most lack resources to invest in prolonged legality.

The bulk of these precarious migrants are faced with few options. They either become undocumented immigrants or apply for asylum at the risk of swift deportation if unsuccessful. Asylum requests from Venezuelans soared five-fold from 5,600 in 2015 to nearly 28,000 in 2017. By 2016 Venezuela surpassed China as the country with the most asylum applications.

President Trump has proposed to cap refugee admissions for Venezuelans at 3,000 (about 10 percent of all refugee admissions) for fiscal year 2019 and has bad mouthed asylum seekers as “con jobs.”

The protracted crises forcing Venezuelans to flee to the U.S. are often deemed “too general” to meet the narrow “fear of persecution” threshold required for refugee admission and, thus, at least half of their applications are denied.

Until now, Venezuelans have largely flown under the radar and escaped Trump’s racialized wrath targeting migrants from Muslim and Central American countries. Venezuelans have typically thought of themselves, and been viewed, as White, professional, legal, and self-sufficient migrants. As their presence increases here, that image may no longer shield Venezuelans from the anti-immigrant venom fueling Trump’s restrictionist policies.

Geopolitical considerations also have historically played a major role in U.S. decisions concerning who deserves asylum (think Cubans and Nicaraguan contras versus Salvadorans). Venezuelans were counting on that time-honored bias given Trump’s fierce opposition to the current Venezuelan government and Nation Security Advisor John Bolton summoning the Monroe Doctrine to warn Russia to stay out of Venezuela. Unfortunately, Venezuelans’ timing is poor, as today’s fear of immigrants trumps fear of Putin.

A glimmer of hope opened up recently with renewed calls to offer Venezuelans Temporary Protected Status (TPS). HR 549, the Venezuela Temporary Protected Status Act of 2019, has already cleared the House. However, the bill comes on the heels of Trump’s executive orders to rescind and stop issuing new TPS for everyone. Indeed, the White House has not yet made an official pronouncement of how it plans to deal with a growing backlog of undocumented and asylum-seeking Venezuelans and there is notable right-wing Republican opposition to TPS for Venezuelans.

Even if TPS were to be granted, it is limited to 18 months of temporary protection. Even if the political crisis ended today in Venezuela, it will take years to bring about stabilization and safety.

In the end, deporting Venezuelans will only aggravate the humanitarian crisis the U.S. government says it’s trying to solve. In the absence of more stable alternative solutions, TPS for Venezuelans makes sense and is urgently needed.

Lourdes Gouveia is Professor Emerita of Sociology and was the founding Director of Latino/Latin American Studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Rogelio Sáenz is Professor of Demography at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Opinión: Los latinos serán cada vez más el futuro de Texas/ Opinion: Latinos will increasingly be the future of Texas

Important opinion piece by UTSA's College of Public Policy Dean Rogelio Saenz.  Major takeaway?  Vote, everybody.  Please vote.

Angela Valenzuela

Opinión: Los latinos serán cada vez más el futuro de Texas

Las ‘soñadoras’ Berenice Ramírez, izq., y Pamela Laredo, estudiantes de la Universidad de Texas, en una manifestación en el Capitolio el 28 de febrero. RALPH BARRERA / ¡AHORA SÍ! Photo: Ralph Barrera

Por Rogelio Sáenz

Hemos sabido por un tiempo que algún día los latinos serán el grupo racial y étnico más grande del estado. Ese día se acerca rápidamente.

Es obvio que los latinos jóvenes representan el futuro de Texas. El estado no puede progresar económicamente sin asegurar que estos jóvenes estén preparados adecuadamente para sus estudios y que desarrollen sus habilidades.

No obstante, el liderazgo de Texas no reconoce esta realidad.

Las estimaciones de la población de Texas, preparadas por la Oficina del Censo, muestran que el crecimiento de Texas durante el último año se debió principalmente a los latinos. La población anglosajona aumentó solamente en 24,000 personas entre 2016 y 2017, comparado con 234,000 latinos.

Hoy la población anglosajona tiene una ventaja de 730,000 personas en relación con la población latina. Sin embargo, proyecciones indican que para el año 2022 los latinos remplazarán a los anglosajones como el grupo racial y étnico más grande de Texas. En las próximas décadas, la población de latinos seguirá aumentando, mientras que la población anglosajona disminuirá.

Este cambio significativo se llevará a cabo dada la juventud de los latinos y el envejecimiento de los anglosajones. La edad media de los anglosajones es de 42, comparado con 29 para los latinos. Entre la población anglosajona hay 1.06 niños menores de 18 años por cada persona mayor de 65 o más años. En la población latina hay 4.6 niños por cada persona mayor.

La juventud de los latinos generará el crecimiento de los latinos y la ausencia de anglosajones jóvenes resultará en la disminución de la población anglosajona.

Esta realidad, sin embargo, no figura entre las prioridades de los legisladores en Austin.

La agenda del Partido Republicano de Texas no incluye el bienestar de los latinos ni de otros grupos marginados. La prioridad de los republicanos abarca la creación de leyes para redefinir el uso de cuartos de baño, leyes contra ciudades santuario, demandas para la terminación de DACA, políticas para dificultar la votación y leyes para restringir los derechos reproductivos de las mujeres..

Ausentes de estas prioridades están las políticas para mejorar las condiciones educativas y laborales, soluciones para crear vivienda asequible y políticas para facilitar el acceso al cuidado de salud.

A pesar del crecimiento de la población latina, el poder político del estado está en manos de los anglosajones. Más de la mitad de los latinos de Texas no son elegibles para votar por ser menores de edad o por no ser ciudadanos estadounidenses.

Para agravar el asunto, el Partido Republicano ha establecido políticas como la ley de “voter ID” para minimizar el poder político de los latinos y otros grupos.

Sin duda, solo nosotros mismos controlamos nuestro destino sobre el objetivo de ganar el poder político.

¿Qué podemos hacer?

• Primero, si eres elegible para votar y no te has registrado, te tienes que registrar inmediatamente. Si ya estás registrado para votar, tienes que animar a tus familiares y amigos que no estén registrados, a que se registren.
• Segundo, si te has registrado para votar, pero no has votado, tienes que votar en la siguiente elección.
• Tercero, hay que educar a nuestros hijos e hijas jóvenes para que se hagan conscientes de la situación política. Cuando tus hijos cumplan 18 años, asegúrate de que se registren para votar si son elegibles. Actualmente, cerca de 203,000 jóvenes latinos cumplen 18 años cada año en Texas. ¡Que riqueza de poder político potencial!
• Cuarto, debido a la juventud de nuestra población, es crucial que los jóvenes milénicos —personas que nacieron entre 1981 y 1996— participen en la política de nuestra comunidad y que consideren postularse como candidatos. Las personas de 18 a 35 años representan un 45% de los latinos elegibles para votar en Texas.
• Quinto, hay que establecer alianzas políticas entre diferentes segmentos de nuestra comunidad latina. Hay muchísimas divisiones en nuestra comunidad basadas en diferentes tipos de estatus.

Basta ya con el odio de ciudadanos latinos contra inmigrantes latinos. Basta ya con el odio de los latinos con recursos contra los latinos pobres. Tenemos que romper la imagen de los cangrejos que jalan hacia abajo a otros miembros de nuestra comunidad.

Las consecuencias de no votar son enormes. El horror de la presidencia de Donald Trump es lo que se crea cuando no votamos. También, dado que no votamos en Texas, la asamblea legislativa ha establecido políticas para dominarnos económica y políticamente. El liderazgo político del estado no nos reconoce como el futuro del estado y nos quiere mantener como la clase baja. Hay que organizarnos y ejercer nuestro músculo político. ¡Empecemos hoy!

Sáenz es decano de la facultad del Colegio de Políticas Públicas de la Universidad de Texas en San Antonio.

Declining white population is spawning fears, bias, by Dr. Rogelio Sáenz

This is one of the best, most concise, analyses of late on the topic of demographic change.  In today's political climate, changing demographics that get exploited from the standpoint of a loss of white centrality among whites, encouraging the maintenance of white privilege and systemic inequalities through the disenfranchisement of the black and brown "other."

The future is inescapably mestiz@ and the world could be in a much better place, as a consequence.  Analyses like this illuminate the path forward.

An immediate takeaway is that Latinos must vote in order to have their voices heard.  

Hats off to UTSA Dean of the College of Public Policy Rogelio Sáenz for this  thorough and insightful interweaving of demographics, policy, and politics.  

Angela Valenzuela

Declining white population is spawning fears, bias

By Rogelio Sáenz, For the Express-News

July 21, 2018 Updated: July 21, 2018 5:03pm

Over the last three decades, demographers have told us that there would come a day when the white population would begin to decline and subsequently become less than half of the U.S. population. The first of these expectations is now here, about a decade earlier than projected.
Mid-year population projections, prepared by the U.S. Census Bureau, indicate that there were nearly 32,000 fewer whites in the nation in 2017 than in 2016, a reduction of 0.02 percent. The white population decrease resulted from natural decline (approximately 178,000 more deaths than births), though 146,000 whites migrating from outside of the country. While the addition of multiracial individuals who identify white as one of their races creates white population gain, it is only an increase of 144,000, the smallest absolute change among single-race and multiple-race whites over the last decade.These patterns are consistent with a study that my colleague, Kenneth Johnson from the University of New Hampshire, and I, published recently. Our research shows that there are 26 states now that have more white deaths than births, including nine of the largest 15 states in the country: California, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, Michigan, New Jersey, Arizona and Massachusetts.States where white deaths outnumber births have a higher share of their population being 65 and older, relatively low birth rates, and a shrinking portion of women capable of giving birth. Put simply, with an overall median age of 45, an aging white population produces more deaths than births.These trends suggest that by 2045, perhaps even sooner, whites will no longer be the numerical majority, quite a difference from 1940 when whites accounted for 88.3 percent of the U.S. population.The 21st century will increasingly see a growing Latino population and a declining white population. The Latino population increased by 1.2 million between 2016 and 2017, accounting for nearly 53 percent of the overall national growth during this period. As immigration from Mexico has plummeted over the last decade, Latino population growth is increasingly driven by natural increase (more births than deaths) associated with its youthfulness (median age of 29.8).Whereas there are only 0.95 children for every one elderly person among whites, there are 4.4 children for one elderly person among Latinos. As such, the relative presence of Latinos has increased. In 1980, there were 12.3 whites for every one Latino in the United States; today there are 3.4 whites to every one Latino and the ratio is projected to drop to 1.6 by 2060.This is the demographic reality of the United States. A country where whites have enjoyed political, economic, social, cultural, and demographic supremacy is changing fast. For many whites, this is uncharted territory. Many want “their” country back — the one that they knew before there were so many people of Mexican origin and other non-whites. Many whites view these individuals as threats to their way of life, culture, and the comfort and security of their white space that they long enjoyed.
It is this anxiety and fear that Donald Trump capitalized on as he initiated his presidential campaign.
“Let’s make America great again,” he proclaimed, promising to take the country back to 1940 when approximately nine of every ten Americans were white.
On the campaign trail, Trump promised white supporters that he would make America great again. Keeping people of color out of the country and deporting those already here became a major priority with Mexicans and Muslims being particular targets. His modus operandi has been travel bans against people from certain countries with large Muslim populations, massive detention and deportation of unauthorized immigrants, and now the willful and cruel separation of children from their parents fleeing violence in Central America.These efforts are meant to stir the ire, hate, and racism of his supporters against “invaders” and “criminals” who are coming to “destroy our country.” Trump also uses these endeavors to stem demographic shifts making the country less white.Trump has other tricks up his sleeve to control the political strength of people of color. These have included the short-lived Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity under the leadership of Kris Kobach, set on making it more difficult for people of color to vote. And they include plans to revamp the drug wars to enhance the mass incarceration — and by association, disenfranchisement — of people of color.
Major cuts to funding for the preparation and execution of the upcoming Census 2020, which will be conducted mostly online, along with the inclusion of a question on citizenship, will undoubtedly increase the undercount of Latinos and other persons of color.Now Trump has selected a replacement to Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court, which will tilt the Court solidly to the right and against people of color.Yet, demographic strength does not necessarily translate to political power. Look at Texas, which has the second largest Latino population in the country.With whites holding a slim 730,000 population advantage over Latinos in the state, Latinos are on track to become the numerical majority in four years. Nonetheless, Texas continues to be one of the reddest states in the country with Democrats last winning a statewide election in 1994. Despite its demographic imminence, the majority of Latinos in Texas are ineligible to vote because they are less than 18 years of age (33.1 percent) or adults who are not U.S. citizens (19.3 percent).Furthermore, Republicans have perfected political strategies to stem the political representation and voting of Latinos and African Americans. These methods include gerrymandering.

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Nationwide, Texas was the clear winner in population growth between 2000 and 2010 with the state gaining four new U.S. congressional seats. Texas’ triumph was due to a growth of 3.8 million non-white persons alongside a gain of 464,000 whites. But the new congressional seats were constructed to be white Republican congressional districts.

Texas has also developed a voter ID law to make it more difficult for people of color to vote. And the Evenwel v. Abbott lawsuit that went all the way to the Supreme Court sought to change the way congressional districts are drawn, calling for the configuration of these on the basis of eligible voters rather than the total population, a method that would significantly reduce the political representation of Latinos.

Fortunately, the Supreme Court voted against Evenwel in April 2016. The demographic attributes of the Latino population, along with Republican political ploys work in conjunction to keep Texas red.

The aging white population in the U.S. is experiencing population decline largely because white deaths are outnumbering births. This demographic reality has major implications for the future of the country. Latinos, in particular, will be an increasingly important segment of the future of the country and all of its institutions including the economy, the healthcare system, universities, the military, places of worship, and the mass media.

In his misguided vision to make America great again, Trump is taking the country to the past, a route that promotes hate and racism. In the path to make America truly great, we need to take into account the new demographic reality and look to a future that fosters hope and prosperity for all.

Rogelio Sáenz is dean of the College of Public Policy and holds the Mark G. Yudof Endowed Chair at the University of Texas at San Antonio