Minnesota’s Arizona-like anti-Hispanic immigration policing bill is backed by representatives from very white parts of the state. How white? Here’s one way to look at it based on 2000 census data.

Hispanic Breakdown of HF3830 Supporters' Districts

The big blue bars represent the percentage of white folks living in each of the bill’s supporter’s districts (all rural Republicans). The red sections on top of the blue represent the percentage of non-white-non-Hispanics within each of the rep’s districts. It seems pretty safe to assume that this bill isn’t aimed at targeting black people, Native Americans, Asians, or Pacific Islanders.

The final slice, in gold, represents the percentage of Hispanic residents in each of the HF3830 supporter’s districts. On the high end, Ron Shimanski (R)’s District: 18A (Silver Lake) is 3.1% Hispanic, while Greg Davids (R) District: 31B has a mere 0.6% Hispanic population.

Here’s another way to look at it. Below is a map (PDF) of the percentage of minorities by legislative district for the State of Minnesota:

Minority Populations of Minnesota Legislative Districts

Every single one of the co-authors of the Arizona-like immigration discrimination bill represents a district that is white on this map (less than 10% of their constituents are non-white).

Is this a case of fear of the unknown?

Or pandering to the fears of the unknown?