If you think providing immigrants with luxury hotel rooms, free meals, laundry service, transportation, medical care, and immigration lawyers is excessive, wait until they can vote. Democrats are pushing to allow noncitizens to vote in local elections in cities like New York City and Boston, as well as across the state of Connecticut.
The number of migrants crossing the southern border has hit a record high, according to data released Saturday. The number of illegal immigrants entering the country increased by 21% from the previous month. On an annual basis, the figure reached 2.48 million.
Democrats may be feigning shock and distress. Don’t be fooled. Democrats see these newcomers as guaranteeing a permanent voting majority in local elections. A few years from now, after the newcomers have obtained citizenship. right now. (Related: Don Huffines: Why should border states pay for illegal immigration?)
New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ statement is typical. He has warned that the overwhelming number of immigrants, currently arriving at 16,000 to 17,000 a month, will “destroy New York City,” while also leading legal efforts to turn immigrants into voters. .
Adams and other New York Democrats pressed President Joe Biden to expedite work authorization for them. They said it was to make immigrants self-sufficient. Perhaps, but Democrats have other powerful motives.
Reading the fine print of New York City’s “Our City, Our Vote” law, enacted in December 2021, anyone with a work permit who has been in the city for just 30 days can vote. It says it can be done. The country is illegal.
Biden’s recent actions for Venezuelan border crossers, who make up about 41% of recent arrivals in New York City, will help them quickly obtain work permits and allow tens of thousands of them to vote under New York City’s new law. You will qualify. Working paper.
That’s if New York City’s voting laws are allowed to go into effect. A big “what if”. Laws are bound in court.
A group of Republicans led by Staten Island Borough President Vito Fosella filed the lawsuit, arguing that the state constitution gives “all citizens” the right to vote. A Staten Island judge accepted that argument and struck down the law, but Adams’ law team appealed the ruling in Superior Court, arguing that the state constitution does not explicitly prohibit noncitizens from voting. ing.
Adams has a chance to win. Despite the Vermont Constitution restricting voting in state elections to U.S. citizens, the Vermont Supreme Court has ruled that noncitizens can vote in municipal elections.
California and Maryland already allow local governments to grant voting rights to noncitizens.
The Boston City Council is debating allowing newcomers to vote, including immigrants with temporary protected status who recently crossed the border illegally.
In Washington, D.C., Democrats pushed through a local law in November 2022 that would allow noncitizens, even employees of foreign embassies, to vote as long as they have lived in the city for 30 days.
In Connecticut, Democrats want to amend the state constitution to allow noncitizens to vote in state and local elections. Amending the state charter is a complex process that takes years and faces fierce opposition from the Republican minority in the Legislature. House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora called the non-referendum “outrageous.”
In the case of New York City, “suicide” is more accurate.
The addition of about 800,000 noncitizens to the city’s 5 million registered voters will have an impact, even if the newcomers won’t necessarily vote as a bloc.
Nora Moran of the New York nonprofit United Neighborhood House predicts that the non-referendum vote will allow political leaders to be “more responsive” to the needs of newcomers and their neighbors. .
That would be a disaster because “more responsive” means more spending.
The city’s spending on immigrants already exceeds the combined budgets of the Fire Department, Sanitation Department and Parks Department. “We are past the breaking point,” Adams warned two months ago, adding that New Yorkers would face cuts to all kinds of city services to cover the costs. (Related: Betsy McCaughey: America, don’t fall for the rent control scam)
Allowing noncitizens to vote would weaken the political power of all other New Yorkers who are the real victims of Biden’s open borders.
Tell Adams to drop his legal appeal and stop pushing for a non-referendum.
Voting is a privilege given to citizens. If immigrants obey the laws, become naturalized, and pledge allegiance to this country and its Constitution, they should be given the right to vote. It wasn’t there before.
Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York and chair of the Commission to Reduce Deaths from Infectious Diseases. Follow her on Twitter @Betsy_McCaughey. To learn more about Betsy McCaughey and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit her Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
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