We are going to have to nip this in the bud! Notice my quote at the bottom of the article.

W

http://www.herald-sun.com/orange/10-734193.html

and

http://www.newsobserver.com/114/story/439082.html

Alderman wants vote for noncitizens
Carrboro leaders present interests and concerns to legislative delegation

Meiling Arounnarath, Staff Writer
CARRBORO - Alderman John Herrera wants Carrboro to be the first town in North Carolina to give noncitizens the vote.
At a meeting Friday between the Board of Aldermen and Orange County's legislative delegation, Herrera asked the delegates to bring the topic to the General Assembly.

He asked "that future U.S. citizens and legal residents on the path to citizenship participate and be able to vote in municipal elections.

"In Carrboro, we would really like to be the pilot project in this," Herrera said.

Friday's meeting was a chance for the aldermen to tell the lawmakers about the issues -- more access to health care and affordable housing, among others -- that they want them to pursue in the legislature.

The state lawmakers present -- Sen. Ellie Kinnaird and Reps. Joe Hackney and Verla Insko -- said they liked Herrera's idea but that it would be more appropriate to raise it during a long session of the legislature, not the short session now under way.

Town Attorney Mike Brough said the proposal would require amending the state constitution.

"This is a huge issue -- I mean huge -- if this is going to be a constitutional amendment," said Kinnaird, a former mayor of Carrboro. "So planting the seed in our minds is a good start."

But Herrera said he thinks they need to act now.

"We need to be faster. And the better we incorporate new citizens into our community, the better off we'll be," he said in an interview Friday. "They're paying taxes. They're sending their kids to school here.

"Right now is the time to say something, to stand up for vulnerable immigrants right now," he said. "It affects all our families and all our communities."

Carrboro's population was 12 percent Hispanic at the time of the 2000 Census.

Herrera, who is from Costa Rica, said it took him 10 years to gain citizenship, during which "I was denied the right and ability to participate in local government."

Carrboro is a good place to start, he said, because "Orange County is such an open-minded community and so many immigrants are here."

William Gheen, president of the national organization Americans for Legal Immigration, said letting noncitizens vote is treason.

"Allowing foreign nationals to influence American lawmaking policy -- that is insane," Gheen said in a phone interview. "American citizens are who [Herrera] is sworn to represent, not the citizens of other nations or foreign nationals.

"And he will find out very soon that the majority of his constituents will feel the same way," he said.

Staff writer Meiling Arounnarath can be reached at 932-2004 or meiling.arounnarath@newsobserver.com.