Illegal Immigrants and Voting Rights

Cross posted from From Liberally Conservative:

The dirty little secret in towns and cities across the country is illegal immigrants, a.k.a. illegal aliens, a.k.a., undocumented workers have the right to vote or will gain that right soon. No, they will not be "legal" but they will acquire more "rights", one of the most valued a legal citizen of the United States has; a right this country would found on, the right to vote!

The Boston Globe is reporting from Liberalville: 

Newton city aldermen want to give legal immigrants who aren't citizens the right to vote in local elections, sparking debate among state lawmakers, immigrant rights advocates, and opponents about the meaning of citizenship amid the changing demographics of the region.

The aldermen last week approved a proposal to allow resident aliens to vote, joining Cambridge, Amherst, and Wayland in passing such measures in recent years. Two of the municipalities have asked the Legislature for authority to grant legal immigrants, those with green cards, the right to vote over the last decade, but the lawmakers, wary of a backlash against immigration and the power of a new batch of voters, have not approved the requests.

Notice the wording, "legal immigrants, those with green cards"; is this the Liberal version of citizen? 

"There are some cities with large immigrant populations, and local elected officials are often sensitive about the power that a large voting bloc of say, Cambodians or Haitians or any other immigrant group might be able to wield," said state Representative Ellen Story, Democrat of Amherst, whose town has repeatedly sought the authority to allow noncitizens the right to vote.

Politicians don't care about your rights as a citizen, the are restructuring the meaning of an actual citizen vs. a documented immigrant who has not gained citizenship but has been provided right to go to school, own property, work and pay taxes. All while we create bilingual signs, pamphlets, ATM and phone menus to accommodate people who refuse to learn English.

In Newton, alderman Ted Hess-Mahan , who spearheaded the proposal in that city, said that residents who pay taxes, send their children to school, and own property in Newton should also be able to vote on measures that affect them. One in 12 Newton residents is a legal immigrant, many of them Chinese or Russian. The resolution could give voting rights to as many as 4,000 people, Hess-Mahan estimated.

It's really all about receiving votes.

"If you had even just 2,000 people who wouldn't otherwise be able to vote come out, it could mean the difference in an important election," Hess-Mahan said.

If, as a politician you promote this right of passage to vote, then the chances are good you'll receive those votes. It's all about politicians and political parties building their constituency, not about enforcing laws, but creating new laws to supercede inconvenient laws.

They still call them aliens in Massachusetts:

Under the Newton proposal, the city's Election Commission would create a register of qualified permanent resident alien voters. Permanent resident aliens -- people who have so-called green cards -- would have to sign registration forms including a sworn declaration that they live in Newton, are legally in the United States, and are seeking to become citizens, if eligible. (People with green cards have taken steps to becoming naturalized but are not yet citizens.) Under the new resolution, they would be able to vote only in local, but not state or federal, elections.

Massachusetts could only hope they could force their Liberal agenda down the throats of all Americans.

Lorrie Hall, founder of the Massachusetts Coalition for Immigration Reform, said her group opposes the proposal. 

"Why become a citizen if you get all the privileges reserved for citizens?" she said. 

Other Cities Grant Voting Rights to non-Citizens

According to the Immigrant Voting Project, a national advocacy group, Chicago allows legal immigrants to vote in school elections, six towns in Maryland allow them to vote in municipal elections, and advocates in New York City are seeking approval to allow legal immigrants to vote.

"Everyone has an interest in safe streets, good schools, well-paying jobs, and access to healthcare," said Immigrant Voting Project co-founder Ron Hayduk . "Immigrants give greater voice to those concerns."

How many have an interest in obeying immigration laws and enforcement? Apparently many groups are more concerned with votes and changing laws to accommodate their political ambitions. Do any of these illegal immigrants belong to terror cells? What's next, absentee ballots for al-Qaeda?

The Federation for American Immigration Reform, a national group based in Washington, D.C., that seeks to restrict immigration, opposes the voting measures. Spokesman Ira Mehlman said proposals like Cambridge's "viscerally grab people the wrong way."

"It's the idea that nothing is sacred anymore, nothing means anything any more, that citizenship has no value," he said. 

The Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition , which lobbied the Legislature to allow communities to enact such proposals without state lawmakers' approval, now says it will make other immigration issues, like in-state tuition for immigrants, a higher priority. 

In Amherst, the Town Meeting has voted six times since 1996 for measures allowing residents with green cards to vote in local elections, according to former school committeeman Vladimir Morales.

Morales said he proposed the measure to help give a political voice to Central American immigrants employed in Amherst's restaurants. He added that it would also likely benefit professors from the University of Massachusetts, for example, who are here legally but may not be citizens.

Illegal, Legal, and Citizen are getting parsed to serve agenda's while skipping over the laws of the land, that land being the United States of American, not Latin America. Immigrants from other countries are certainly involved but the issue of obtaining citizenship first should be the priority not passing laws to skip the citizenship process.

**This was a production of The Coalition Against Illegal Immigration (CAII). If you would like to participate, please go to the above link to learn more. Afterwards, email stiknstein@gmail.com and let us know at what level you would like to participate.

Comments

[BobF]

Can you imagine what it would have been like when you were stationed overseas and demanded to vote in the host countries elections?

Immigrants of the past saved and worked hard to come to America. Once here, they studied, worked, and proved their worth to America in hopes of becoming American Citizens...my grandfather hung his citizenship papers on the wall for all to see. Now in their lust for power and control, politicians are frittering away one of our most treasured rights of citizenship...the right to vote. And, in doing so, they are crapping on the hard work and integrity of the immigrants who came to this country legally and met the requirements for citizenship.

Also, I had an interesting conversation yesterday with a representative of the Republican National Committee concerning the imprisoned border patrol agents who shot a drug runner. I posted about it in a friends blog here: http://www.theurbangrindblog.com/

[canuckistani]

Of course it's all about votes. Wait until you have a President who is in hot water, an election is coming and the illegal Hispanic voter numbers would bail him out. Then it will be a national right given to all illegals.

What this city alderman is doing is nothing new. It happened in my province here in Canada when I was young. The premier needed votes so he gave language rights to a minority. It wrecked the province and I had to move because I didn't speak the second language "good enough". I have every other qualification, but language. Meanwhile, those in the minority fracture my own language but get all the jobs. Bitter? You bet!

[Violence Worker]

Canucki, I would not support ANY politician that advocated such a position and Like BobF's grandfather, my wife's parents were both immigrants that were fiercely proud of their citizenship. My father-in-law wasn't an Italian-American or an Italian that lived here, he was an American and he would tell you that - IN ENGLISH! He never had any inclination to go back to Italy, even though by the time he retired, he was fairly well off. He worked hard and saved. He was an Electrician, first in the shipyards of San Francisco and later in the building industry.

VW

[BobF]

Canucki, what are language rights?

VW, my grandfather wouldn't teach or allow his children to speak Italian. He would say, "your in American and you will speak American". I wish we were taught Italian but to him and millions of other immigrants, being American meant speaking English. BTW, not only did his children grow up to have successful lives, he owned his own farm and retired as a steelworker. Just think, he did this without free medical, housing, and food stamps.