Commentary: Big Tent Ideas

BETSY MCCAUGHEY: Meet The Dems’ Latest Handout — Voting Rights For Noncitizens

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If you think offering migrants luxury hotel rooms, free meals, laundry service, transportation, health care and immigration lawyers is excessive, just wait until they can vote. Democrats are pushing to allow noncitizens to vote in local elections in New York City, Boston and other municipalities, as well as statewide in Connecticut.

The number of migrants pouring across the southern border hit a record high, according to data released Saturday. Illegal immigrant crossings soared 21% over the previous month. On a yearly basis, the figure hit 2.48 million.

Democrats may feign shock and distress. Don’t be fooled. Dems see these newcomers as their guarantee of a permanent voting majority in local elections. Not years from now, after the newcomers become citizens. Right now.

New York Mayor Eric Adams’ rhetoric is typical. He warns that the overwhelming number of migrants arriving — currently 16,000 to 17,000 a month — “will destroy New York City,” but he’s also leading the legal effort to turn migrants into voters.

Adams and other New York Democrats pushed President Joe Biden to expedite work authorizations for them. They said it’s about making migrants self-sufficient. Maybe, but Dems have another powerful motive.

If you read the fine print of New York City’s “Our City, Our Vote” law, enacted in December 2021, it says that anyone with a work authorization who has been in the city for a mere 30 days can vote, even if they entered the country illegally.

Biden’s recent action fast-tracking work authorizations for Venezuelan border crossers, who make up about 41% of recent arrivals in New York City, will make tens of thousands of them eligible to vote under New York City’s new law, as soon as they obtain their working papers.

That is, if New York City’s voting law is allowed to go into effect. A big “if.” The law is tied up in court.

A group of Republicans led by Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella sued, arguing the state constitution grants the right to vote to “every citizen.” A Staten Island judge bought that argument and struck down the law, but Adams’ law department is appealing that ruling in a higher court, arguing that the state constitution does not specifically prohibit noncitizens from voting.

Adams has a shot at winning. Vermont’s top court ruled in favor of allowing noncitizens to vote in municipal elections, even though the Vermont constitution restricts voting in state elections to U.S. citizens.

California and Maryland also already permit municipalities to enfranchise noncitizens.

The Boston City Council is debating allowing newcomers to vote, including migrants who recently came across the border illegally and have temporary protected status.

In Washington, D.C., Democrats rammed through a local law in November 2022 allowing noncitizens, even foreign embassy employees, to vote, as long as they’ve resided in the city for 30 days.

In Connecticut, Democrats want to amend the state’s constitution to allow noncitizens to vote in state and local elections. Amending the state’s charter is a multiyear complicated process, and it’s facing stiff opposition from the Republican minority in the legislature. House Minority Leader Rep. Vincent Candelora calls noncitizen voting “outrageous.”

For New York City, “suicidal” is more accurate.

Adding some 800,000 noncitizens to the 5 million registered voters in the city will have an impact, even if newcomers don’t always vote as a block.

Nora Moran of the United Neighborhood Houses, a New York nonprofit, predicts noncitizen voting will make political leaders “more responsive” to the needs of newcomers and their neighborhoods.

To the extent “more responsive” means spending more, that will be a disaster.

City spending on migrants already exceeds the budgets of the Fire, Sanitation and Parks Departments combined. “We are past our breaking point,” Adams cautioned two months ago, adding that New Yorkers will be facing cuts in every type of city service to foot the bill.

Letting noncitizens vote will dilute the political power of all other New Yorkers, who are the real victims of Biden’s open borders.

Tell Adams to withdraw his legal appeal and stop pushing for noncitizen voting.

Voting is a privilege reserved for citizens. Once immigrants follow the law, become naturalized and swear loyalty to this nation and its Constitution, they should be entitled to vote. Not before.

Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York and chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths. Follow her on Twitter @Betsy_McCaughey. To find out more about Betsy McCaughey and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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