New Haven Asks State to Allow Non-Citizens to Vote
New Haven Mayor John DeStefano plans to ask the state Legislature to allow illegal immigrants who live in the city to be able vote in municipal elections.
DeStefano said on Tuesday that the proposal would build a more engaged community and follows the lead of other cities, the New Haven Register reports.
The Register reports that 10,000 to 12,000 undocumented residents are believed to live in New Haven.
Immigrants who are in the U.S. legally or illegally and cannot vote now would still be unable to vote in state or federal elections.
more: http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/New-Haven-Asks-State-to-Allow-Non-Citizens-to-Vote--135569598.html
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Luciferous
(6,586 posts)to come here legally?
RUMMYisFROSTED
(30,749 posts)why do we keep removing rights from people who are here legally?
Lance_Boyle
(5,559 posts)Allow legal aliens the vote? Maybe. If there's some valid reason why they do not want to seek citizenship, which would give them the vote. Illegal aliens? No effin' way. Why would anyone think that's a good idea?
NYC Liberal
(20,453 posts)in local elections makes sense.
This? No.
CTyankee
(68,124 posts)I do not believe this man has any morals behind this. It's all politics.
LiberalFighter
(53,544 posts)CTyankee
(68,124 posts)This guy is in the business of keeping himself mayor for life. He's tried to bust the janitors union. He's deep in the grease of the machine. I refused to vote for him this fall and voted for an independent (who is a Democrat) running against him. Other Dems here in New Haven did the same and he had a real challenge on his hands but eventually won the election.
This is the guy who bungled the firefighters issue, resulting the in the SCOTUS case, Rizzo v. DeStefano, that weakened affirmative action. I don't know what his endgame is with this idea but it is an issue here that will inflame the townies who have already been inflamed enough. To them, I say "Fine, go live in East Haven," a town that loves it white ethnic hatred of "illegals" (even tho I have a few dear friends that live or have lived there). Even tho their forebears were largely Italian immigrants (and who knows what citizenship status they once had back at the turn of the last century), they harbor deep resentment against our Hispanic community.
I'm going to have to talk to my friends at City Hall about this turn of events...I'd really like to know what mayor John has up his sleeve...
dixiegrrrrl
(60,156 posts)
sharp_stick
(14,400 posts)about re-election prospects. He actually ran a bunch of Statewide ads this last time around. I'm not sure how well he did offhand but this kind of idiotic posturing doesn't bode well for a future run.
CTyankee
(68,124 posts)Dem primary against Dan Malloy?
His opponent this year Jeff Kerekes did better against him than any other challenger that I can remember. I voted for Kerekes, who was a Dem fed up with DeStefano's wheeling and dealing. So there are cracks in his wall.
sharp_stick
(14,400 posts)for Mayor. His was the only ad I saw and I live in Middletown. I couldn't remember who was running against him but I was happy to see that somebody had spooked him a bit.
CTyankee
(68,124 posts)the janitors union and before the Rizzo case was handed down.
I ran into a guy at the diner today who thought DeStefano was trying to rally the Hispanic vote because an Hispanic alderman here in the city is planning to run against him in two years...it won't do mayor John any good, tho...
Liberal Veteran
(22,239 posts)No good can come of this.
Cal Carpenter
(4,959 posts)but I am surprised at the reactions on this thread.
smh
CTyankee
(68,124 posts)A few years back I supported his local ID card for New Haven residents even tho that caused a virulent reaction from conservatives. In fact, in a show of solidarity my husband and I got our own cards, even tho in reality we really didn't need to. I am a Literacy volunteer and we take all comers to our free tutoring sites in the community. I was pleased with the local card because it enabled people to open bank accounts (as a crime fighting issue since people who kept money in their apts. were being regularly burglarized) and get library cards for themselves and their children, thereby helping new immigrants in our community learn English.
This newest idea of his doesn't make me angry at all. I just wonder, given how corrupt and inept he is, what is really behind it...I don't seem him as benevolent...
Posteritatis
(18,807 posts)I don't know the constitutional (or Constitutional) mechanics around it in the US - municipal politics in Canada are Byzantine enough - but I have a hard time getting upset at a town wanting to expand the franchise on its turf for a change, particularly if it turns out to legally have the right to determine such things on its own.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)
SoapBox
(18,791 posts)Get a pathway to citizenship for these folks.
When they are Americans, they can vote.
What a STOOPID thing to propose...FuxNooseChannel is going to have a hay day with this.
pampango
(24,692 posts)New Haven Independent: http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/destefano_let_immigrants_vote/id_42894
Several Maryland municipalities already allow non-citizen voting, including Takoma Park, which granted illegal immigrants the right to vote in 1992. Chicago allows non-citizens to vote in school board elections. The proposal has failed in some other communities, such as San Francisco and Portland, Maine.
Nationally, a movement to grant non-citizen immigrants local voting rights has sprung up in “close to two dozen states,” according to Michele Wucker, president of the World Policy Institute and author of Lockout: Why America Keeps Getting Immigration Wrong When Our Prosperity Depends on Getting It Right.
“The idea is that when you live in a city, you are essentially a citizen of that city, which is separate form federal or national citizenship,” Wucker said Tuesday. “The logic is that everybody is better off when everyone on their block and in their town has a stake in staying on top of issues and working together and to get safe and clean streets, good schools, reliable transportation, and good health care.
“The other part of the argument is that from the beginning of U.S. history until the 1920s, non-citizen voting was very common, at one point in 44 states and territories, at various levels. The movement now is for local elections. In most cases, with the exceptions of school boards, it’s for people who have their papers, who are legal. This is not illegal immigrants voting for president.”
Campaigns for local voting rights usually include all immigrants here legally when it comes to municipal elections (like for mayor), and include undocumented immigrants when it comes to school board elections, Wucker said.
CTyankee
(68,124 posts)It is fascinating...
pampango
(24,692 posts)Today, the daily functions of citizens and noncitizens are indistinguishable: Legal immigrants are taking part in Portland's economy, expanding its civic and cultural affairs, complying with requirements to pay taxes and fighting in the U.S. armed services to protect America's core values.
It is time for Portland to give its legal residents a voice at the local level. ... At the municipal level, all of us face similar issues: How are our local tax dollars being spent? Are our roads plowed? Is our garbage picked up? How good are our public schools? Our community has much to gain by letting all legal residents in Portland vote on these quality-of-life issues.
Opponents have chosen to sanctify citizenship to deny this right. They reflect an ongoing argument in America about citizen and noncitizen voting rights. The first three words of the Constitution are "We the people," not "we the citizens."
Similar to the hostile voices aimed at immigrants of Muslim faith, University of Southern Maine Professor Mark Lapping has detailed how, a century ago, native Portland's hostile voices took aim at Catholic -- mostly Irish, French Canadian, Italian and Polish -- immigrants, creating widespread voter anxieties and fears. Portland's 7,000-strong Ku Klux Klan rally in the 1920s, successfully excluding immigrant voting, is little different from the hostility of Glenn Beck toward President Obama's race, faith and citizenship.
So why support giving legal immigrants local voting rights when you are unemployed and told that immigrants are displacing you? When others say that they do not legally share your faith or democratic values? Certainly, the federal government's inept failure for comprehensive immigration reform has not helped.
The voting rights ballot initiative represents a more positive back-to-the-future approach toward diversity and immigration. It is nothing new, according to Portland historian Allan Levinsky, helps reverse the KKK anti-immigrant voting "reforms," is good for business and helps secure benefits for senior citizens.
http://www.pressherald.com/opinion/letting-legal-immigrants-vote-has-long-history-in-this-country_2010-09-17.html
It is an interesting history that is not covered much these days.
emilyg
(22,742 posts)
Little Tich
(6,171 posts)Everyone should be able to vote in a municipal election if they live there. It has nothing to do with citizenship, I think. It's important that everyone has a say about the how the local municipality is run.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)CTyankee
(68,124 posts)local elections. This is probably because as a Literacy Volunteer who teaches ESOL I deal with the immigrant population regularly and the organization doesn't ask any questions about the status of people we serve. I love working with them and helping them. What I do know about them is how hard they work and yet they get on the bus and come to the local library on Saturday mornings and they are eager to learn. It's not being PC with me. But perhaps I am not looking at this issue objectively enough...I really don't know...