Are Democrats trying to lose elections?
New York is now the largest municipality in the country to give
voting rights to non-citizens. It’s bad policy, and a lead-pipe cinch that this
will become a major campaign talking point for Republicans.
By Mona Charen Jan 13, 2022, 3:00pm CST
Would you have predicted that the first big political blunder of
2022 would be committed by the freshly inaugurated mayor of New York? Would you
have thought that Eric Adams, the African American former cop, political
moderate and skilled campaigner who represented a better path for Democrats,
would step on a rake?
Adams just declined to veto a New York City law that permits
non-citizens to vote in municipal elections. This is bad policy and terrible
politics.
Under the statute, legal permanent residents (green-card
holders), those with valid work visas, and “Dreamers” who have lived in the
city for at least 30 days will be permitted to vote for city council members,
mayor and other municipal offices. The new law will add 800,000 non-citizens to
the voting rolls in a city with 5.6 million registered voters. And while they
will not be eligible to vote for candidates for state or federal offices, this
nuance will doubtless be obscured by Republican messaging.
”We build a stronger democracy when we include the voices of
immigrants,” explained former council member Ydanis Rodriguez, who championed
the legislation and has just been appointed transportation commissioner.
That sounds nice, but it misses some key points. Not everyone
who came here from another country is a true immigrant. Some are just passing
through. That’s not new. Between 1850 and 1913, the era of mass migration,
about 30 million Europeans came to America. One in three eventually returned
home, and there is reason to believe that similar percentages may be doing the
same in the 21st century. A Pew survey found that since the Great Recession,
more Mexicans have returned home than have immigrated here. Some foreigners who
come here may initially plan to stay and then change their minds. They are not
true immigrants, but non-citizen residents. That doesn’t mean they have no
rights; they enjoy the rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights among others.
But they are renters, not owners.
Acts like New York City’s cheapen the meaning of citizenship.
Voting is not just a transaction. It isn’t just a matter of deciding which
candidate will better handle snow removal or trash collection. Voting is an act
of affiliation, a statement of solidarity with the nation you’ve adopted as
your own. That’s why the citizenship oath reads, in part: “I hereby declare, on
oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and
fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or
which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen.”
Handing Republicans campaign fodder
Immigrants who make the commitment of citizenship earn the right
to vote and other rights. It is one of our crowning glories as a nation that we
welcome immigrants as full-fledged Americans. But the immigrant must undertake
to become an American before he can expect the benefits of citizenship. That
means learning our language, our history and our system (in fact, new citizens
are often more conversant with our Constitution than the native-born), abiding
by the residency rules, paying a hefty $725 fee, staying out of trouble with
the law and more. Simply living and working here is not an expression of
commitment to the future of this country.
Observing a room full of immigrants from around the globe, hands
over hearts, taking the oath of citizenship is a moving and inspiring sight.
Watching someone from Canada, who just happens to be living in New York for six
months, line up to vote is not.
The self-styled “national conservatives” have lately been
arguing that Americanness is a matter of history and culture. America is a
place, they say, not an idea. Traditionalists deny this. They (we) believe that
Americanness is founded upon the willing embrace of certain ideals and
principles and the expression of loyalty to the country. But we can’t go around
handing out voting rights promiscuously. It devalues citizenship and undermines
support for immigration.
New York has become the largest municipality in the country to
give voting rights to non-citizens. There are 14 others, mostly small towns in
Maryland. It’s a lead-pipe cinch that this will become a major campaign talking
point for Republicans. They will depict this as proof that Democrats only favor
immigration because they want to pad the number of Democratic voters (leaving
aside that Hispanic voters have been trending toward the Republicans in recent
elections).
And they will likely find that most Americans agree. When San
Francisco considered a measure that would have given non-citizens voting rights
in school board races, 91% of Republicans opposed the plan, along with 54% of
Democrats and 70% of independents. That New York’s law was passed with the
acquiescence of one of the Democratic Party’s marquee moderates (when even
former Mayor Bill De Blasio hesitated) is icing on the cake for Republicans.
This is an own goal for Democrats.
Mona Charen is policy editor of The Bulwark and host of the “Beg
to Differ” podcast.