Immigrants, that is, who are non-citizens! All of a sudden, or maybe not, maybe it’s just come to my attention, but leftist political leaders from both sides of the Atlantic are pushing for non-citizen immigrants to have voting rights in local elections.
From the Times of Malta in a discussion about voting rights in the European Parliment:
A report drafted by Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil on a common EU immigration policy was yesterday adopted by the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee after a marathon voting session on no less than 234 amendments.
The vote followed intense negotiations during the last few weeks, presided over by Dr Busuttil, between political groups in an effort to reach a compromise on some hotly contested issues.
However, yesterday’s vote did not go according to Dr Busuttil’s plans since a majority of MEPs on the committee – composed of Socialists, Greens, Communists and Liberals – voted together to support granting immigrants the opportunity to vote in local elections.
This led Dr Busuttil’s group, the EPP [EPP is considered a center-right party, here], to withhold its support on all the compromises by abstaining on the final vote in Committee until the matter is redressed.
Speaking to The Times after the session, Dr Busuttil said the vote respected nearly all the compromises reached during the negotiations but consensus broke down when it came to granting political rights to immigrants.
“The Socialists, Greens, Communists and Liberals formed a majority to support granting immigrants the opportunity to vote in local elections. Giving migrants the right to vote is a red line for us (EPP), which we were not prepared to cross,” he said.
“For this reason, my group’s support is on hold and I hope this can be remedied in time for the adoption of this report in plenary,” he said. Negotiations would now resume in search of a compromise on the main sticking point.
Be sure to read the comments and see that the Maltese people don’t like the idea of illegal aliens and other non-citizens having the right to vote.
Now to Maine. The discussion is going on there too! And, much to my surprise, some towns in my state of Maryland already let non-citizens vote in local elections! From the Morning Sentinel:
AUGUSTA — Lawmakers are preparing to consider a bill that would let communities choose to allow non-U.S. citizens to vote in municipal elections.
Proponents argue that letting non-citizen immigrants vote on local issues would include them in the community, and provide incentive for them to pursue citizenship.
Critics say voting is a right that should be reserved for U.S. citizens, and some suggest that newcomers to the country don’t necessarily have the language skills or the knowledge of issues needed to make an informed vote.
Did you know that some jurisdictions in the US already allow voting by non-citizens?
Chicago, for instance, allows them to vote in school elections, and six towns in Maryland allow them to vote in all local elections. They can vote in the Massachusetts towns of Cambridge, Amherst and Newton, said Hayduk, and proposals have been made to do the same in Chelsea and Somerville, and likely will resurface in Boston after a 2007 defeat.
Dumb Americans, smart immigrants! Guess who thinks this might not be a good idea? Immigrants! Where is Transitionland, you see I can say something good about immigrants, they seem to have more sense then leftwing Americans!
Reaction was mixed in Portland’s immigrant community. [not really!]
Mohamud Barre, president of the Somali Culture and Development Association of Maine, said he’s concerned that many immigrants aren’t informed enough to vote.
“They don’t know what’s going on, they don’t speak English,” said Barre, who is originally from Somalia.
When immigrants get the right to vote through citizenship, said Barre, they’ve spent time learning about the country and working on language skills. That allows them to become informed, he said.
“They have at least learned what’s going on — they can make a decision,” he said.
Sam Udomsay, who came to this country from Thailand when he was only 4 and got his citizenship about 10 years ago, said he’s not sure many immigrants would have an idea of how the process works.
“I guess it would be a great idea to allow them to vote, if they had more knowledge of what was going on,” said Udomsay, 32, of Westbrook.
Udomsay said that immigrant communities tend to have leaders. He said he would be concerned that if non-citizens didn’t understand the issues, they might just vote the way their leaders instructed them.
Udomsay also said that people should earn the right to vote.
Mr. Barre, Mr. Udomsay, I couldn’t agree more.