Posted on 09/10/2008 6:14:58 PM PDT by wac3rd
In advance of the 2009 citywide elections, a coalition of immigrant and advocacy organizations is reigniting a fight to give noncitizens the right to vote in municipal elections, drawing the ire of opponents who argue that voting is a right for American citizens only.
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Michael Nagle/Getty
Protesters gather In May 2007 at Union Square for a May Day immigration-related protest.
At a rally outside City Hall yesterday organized by the New York Coalition to Expand Voting Rights, supporters of a City Council bill that would extend voting rights to 1.3 million noncitizen New Yorkers said it's unfair that immigrant residents pay more than $18 billion in state income taxes when they can't vote for their representatives. The group is planning to pressure elected officials to back the legislation, which has been on file for more than two years but hasn't moved forward.
A supporter of the bill, Council Member Robert Jackson of Harlem, said in his district alone there are about 40,000 people who are paying taxes and don't have the right to vote. He said the coalition needed to publicize the position of every council member on the proposal and the reasons for their stances.
He suggested that those opposed to giving noncitizens the right to vote might be motivated by racism, and noted that in the early years of American history noncitizens were allowed to vote. That ended after World War I.
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...
At some point, this will explode...I fear for my child's future in Mexiamerica.
It’s not racism, it’s the law.
I believe noncitizens can vote in elections in Takoma Park, MD, but don't know about the rest of the US. The largest city that allows noncitizen immigrants to vote is Rome, LZ Italy.
LOL! Very weak... Typical C student journalist major crap....
So are they suggesting only one race is allowed to vote? LOL! Please....
The VERY FOUNDATION of this venerable republic is the ballot box...the right to vote. And it is a right of CITIZENS.
To allow non-citizens to vote serves only to further undermine the bedrock of this grand experiment, and weaken the fabric of the nation, one thread at a time.
This is insane. And, unconstitutional, IMO.
They should pay taxes. These illegals put a tremendous burden on our hospitals, education facilities, need for more roads and other public sevices. The benefit from free lunches, free healthcare and other subsidized probrams cost us far more than they contribute. I would like to go Mexico and see how far I get in voting in their elections.
If you can protest in another nation and we clearly know where you are, why can’t we gas up the bus or train and send you home?
We are weak and have politicians with no spine.
Obama and McCain will get an earful prior to November.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
You aren’t allowed to even enter. I was flying to Cabo San Lucas one summer a few years back for a booze, golf and fishing trip (more of the former) and while we were an hour away, the flight attendants made us fill out paperwork with passport information, reason for stay, amount of money on us, where we were staying, etc.
I was pretty buzzed already via in-flight cocktails and started laughing. A pretty Latina flight attendant came up to me and asked me if I had a question...I said, “How can a country that sends millions of its poor and instructs how to cross the border then asks form money to be sent home have the cajones to ask me for my passport.”
She was pissed and said something to me under her breath.
Coming into customs, I was also searched, when I had never been searched in many trips.
The truth hurts, go look at prisons and Los Angeles, in general.
They can go home and vote their asses off.
You are right, the Left need the poor for power.
A wise man said Jesse Jackson would be poor himself if he had no victims; sort of like John Edwards, he needs victims to live in a 40,000 SF home.
The only thing that the non-citizens have to do in order to be able to vote is to become citizens. Since they are not (yet) citizens of the United States, they are, by definition, citizens of another country and have the right to vote there. If they were to vote here, they would therefore have the right to vote twice (once there and once here). Doesn’t that violate the concept of one person one vote.
Excuse the &%#$ out of me!?
Why should a non-citizen have a say in our elections?
Funny, I never felt I had a right or an entitlement to vote in any election - national, provincial, or local.
I always felt that if I didn't like the government, I could do what any other guest - invited, or uninvited - could do.
I could pack up my stuff and I could leave.
Council Member Robert Jackson of Harlem, said in his district alone there are about 40,000 people who are paying taxes and don’t have the right to vote.”
you’re exactly right - it’s the law!!! Hellooooo - anyone who gets paid for income must pay taxes, but ONLY American citizens have the privilege of voting. (at least it was always that way, heretofore)
what the h*** is happening to our country??? It’s tragic that MOST of America isn’t even aware of this insidious action/movement going on.
Yep - it’s always racism. The system is set up just to screw you.
Have a nice day.
(/sarcasm)
No representation without taxation!
This is how it starts.
ping
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