CaribWorldNews, NEW YORK, NY, Tues. Jan. 15, 2008: As the US Presidential election heats up across states, bloc voters are becoming prized targets. So exactly how many Caribbean Americans voters are there across the US? That’s anybody’s guess but what is known is that in the past ten years the number has topped over 800,000.

A CWNN analysis of US DHS data between 1997 and 2006 has put the number at 800,899. Most of those naturalized live predominantly in New York and Florida and are largely between the ages of 25 and 34. Most are married, are women and working in management or the service industry, DHS data showed. There are, however, smaller pockets in states like Michigan and even Nevada and New Hampshire.

Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba and the Dominican Republic dominated the top four highest number of dual citizens.

The Dominican Republican naturalized population was put at 182,603 while Jamaicans topped at 170,251, with the highest number of naturalization occurring in 1999, three years after the tough immigration reform laws passed by Congress that made anyone holding a greencard and committing a crime deportable.

Cubans came in at 143,173 while Haiti had a whopping 121,514.  Guyanese naturalization was put at 70,269 while 52,697 were from Trinidad & Tobago.

Barbadians accounted for 12,433 over the 10 year period while there were some 8,275 from Grenada and 6,348 from Antigua.

From St. Kitts and Nevis, the DHS put the naturalization total at 5,269 while the number was put at 5,143 for St. Lucia. St. Vincent & the Grenadines accounted for 5,894. US DHS statistics put the Bahamas’ naturalization total at 4,414.

Suriname’s total naturalization for the 1997-2006 period was put at a mere 1,204.

British dependent territories were in the bottom. Montserrat accounted for 1,044 while there were 813 from the BVI and 670 from the Cayman Islands. Some 586 were from Bermuda; 553 from Anguilla and 505 from Aruba.  The Netherland Antilles saw only 440. From Guadeloupe, there were only 273 while the Turks & Caicos had 325 nationals who opted to become US citizens, according to DHS records.

French Guiana had the lowest recorded number of naturalizations with 28 in 10 years. - CaribWorldNews.com