All you immigrant-haters out there tend to think Latinos are taking over America.

Well, you're right. Latinos officially became the largest minority group at American colleges, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. A 24 percent increase in smarty-pants brown kids last year put them past African Americans in enrollment, according to the Center.

Here are the numbers:

-1.8 million Latinos attended college last year, accounting for 15.5 percent of those enrolled in higher education programs. Not bad considering Latinos make up 16 percent of the American population.

-But … Latinos still lag in sending their kids to college in the numbers seen by other ethnic groups. About 32 percent of Latinos eventually head to higher education compared with 38 percent of African Americans, 43 percent of whites and a whopping 62 percent of Asian Americans.

Still, in 2010 320,000 fewer white kids went to college, while Latinos (+349,000), African Americans (+88,000) and Asian Americans (+43,000) all saw gains.

Pew:

The Hispanic enrollment increase has been even more dramatic than the black enrollment increase because it has been spurred by a mixture of population growth and educational strides. High levels of immigration and high birth rates have made Hispanics the nation's biggest minority group …

So, sorry about that, angry AM radio guys. We promise, we won't “reconquer” America though. We'll just make it a better looking place one campus at a time.

Read the whole report here (PDF).

[@dennisjromero/djromero@laweekly.com]

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