CALIFORNIA
FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 2024, OR THEREAFTER
BY
THOMAS D. ELIAS
“LINES BETWEEN CITIZENS, NON-CITIZENS MAY
BLUR FURTHER”
The
lines between American citizens and noncitizen immigrants who live here,
legally or not, may become even more blurred this fall than they are today.
The
newest move in this direction comes in Santa Ana, the county seat of the once
reliably Republican Orange County, now mostly a “purple” area where hot races
for Congress in recent years have been decided by thin margins.
The
question now is whether non-citizens should be permitted to vote in strictly
local elections and how that question should be presented to voters this fall.
Santa
Ana’s city council wants voters to determine whether noncitizens who live in
the city should participate in local elections. The city’s population of more
than 308,000 includes about 5,600 Vietnamese noncitizen residents and more than
60,000 Latinos who also lack citizenship.
The ballot proposal contains seven words
saying local noncitizens, “including those who are taxpayers and parents,”
should get the right to vote. Noncitizen parents of public schoolchildren
already can vote in San Francisco school board elections and all local
noncitizens will soon be eligible for that and other local balloting in
Oakland. The San Francisco voting expansion was first approved by a 54-46
percent margin in 2016.
It was quickly struck down by a trial
judge, but later reinstated by the state Court of Appeal.
The U.S. Constitution does not ban such
expansion of voting rights, blurring distinctions between citizens and those
who are not, but allows only citizen voting in federal elections. California
state elections are similarly confined to U.S. citizens.
The trend toward noncitizen voting goes
far beyond this state. One example: Just after New York City Mayor Eric Adams
swore his oath of office in 2022, he flip-flopped to endorse a local measure
letting noncitizens vote in local elections.
Adams opposed that plan during his
campaign and did not sign the law, but let it take effect when he declined to
veto it.
This is all part of a general blurring
of differences between citizens and noncitizens. A prominent example came in
2015, when noncitizens began getting California drivers licenses virtually
identical to those of citizens. Immigrant children are now eligible for
state-paid medical care under Medi-Cal and pay in-state tuition for state
colleges and universities as long as their residency qualifies them.
Undocumented immigrants even have the right to practice law here under a bill
signed in 2015 by ex-Gov. Jerry Brown. But they cannot serve on juries.
Mere days after Adams allowed virtually
universal voting in New York, current Gov. Gavin Newsom expanded Medi-Cal
insurance for the poor to cover undocumented immigrants between ages 26 and 50.
Each of these moves lessened the
motivation for immigrants to work toward citizenship. The rationale for each
step along this path has been that noncitizens, regardless of their legal
status, are part of the fabric of communities where they live.
Said Adams on his inauguration day, “I
believe that all New Yorkers should have a say in their government…I look
forward to bringing millions more into the democratic process.”
But some in Santa Ana questioned whether
the “taxpayers and parents” language in the current noncitizen voting proposal
would bias voters toward approving it. Some conservative organizations
challenged that wording in court and got a county judge to order the language
made more neutral.
But the city council nevertheless voted
to keep the original text, despite objections from Councilman David Penaloza,
who called the language “disingenuous” and meant “to persuade and influence
voters.”
For sure, if this measure passes, it
will face a new court challenge. Because the U.S. Constitution is silent about
who can vote in local elections, there’s a good chance the current measure
would survive.
Meanwhile, other states are moving to
ban noncitizen voting. Six states already have such rules, while measures to
ban noncitizen voting at all levels are on the ballot in five others this fall.
And there is no active move to give
illegal immigrants a path to citizenship or to reduce the current application
cost for others, now about $760 per person.
It all leads to a confused situation
with few immigrants knowing both their rights and what is prohibited to them.
-30-
Email
Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski
Breakthrough," is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more
Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net
No comments:
Post a Comment