D.C. Council sent a bill to Mayor Muriel Bowser that plans to allow illegal immigrants to vote in the upcoming November local elections. The bill passed almost unanimously in the council as it passed 12 - 1.
The bill expands on the already current law that allows green card holders to vote.
Councilman Charles Allen, chairman of the Judiciary Committee sponsor the bill and said:
“In the District [of Columbia], we understand disenfranchisement,” Allen said during the committee vote.
“We know what it feels like to be taxed without representation. That people we didn’t elect make decisions that deeply affect our lives.”
The intent is to give people, whether they are citizens or not, more say over their lives.
Juan Ulloa is a board member of the D.C. Latino Caucus said:
“We’re offering the opportunity for more people that are affected by the decisions of our legislators to have a voice in the process.”
Ulloa and other groups have lobbied for a bill like this for years.
According to ABC 7, about 50,000 people will be given the right to vote in Washington, D.C.
Ulloa added:
“Noncitizens live here, they pay taxes, they contribute to the economy and our way of life here. But yet, the taxes they pay -- decisions are being made on the money, and yet they have no say on it.”
The bill also doesn't have anything to do with migrants who arrived because Texas Governor Greg Abbott bussed them to the nation’s capital.
Not everyone supports the new bill
Marguerite Telford with the Center for Immigration Studies said the vote devalues citizenship and it is an especially bad idea in the nation’s capital.
Telford said:
“I think it’s very dangerous allowing all these residents who actually are foreign nationals – like in the Chinese embassy, in the Russian embassy – allowing them voting in your elections.”
As of Friday, the bill didn’t reach the desk of Mayor Bowser and it is unknown if she will sign it.
If she signs it, then Congress will review the bill one final time before it becomes law.
What do you think about allowing non-citizens the right to vote?