Court: Deport Illegal Immigrant Who Committed Voter Fraud
7th Circuit judges uphold deportation order for resident alien who illegally registered to vote
by Edmund Kozak | Updated 14 Feb 2017 at 11:29 AM
The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that Margarita Del Pilar Fitzpatrick, a resident alien who registered to vote illegally, can be deported for the act despite her claim that she did so at the direction of a DMV employee.
Fitzpatrick arrived in the country in 2002 and is married to a U.S. citizen. Fitzpatrick applied for an Illinois driver’s licence a few years after arriving in the country, court records show. During the process, the DMV clerk asked Fitzpatrick if she wished to register to vote, telling her “it’s up to you.”
In her appeal, Fitzpatrick’s lawyer, Richard Hanus, argued that the DMV employee’s direction constituted “official approval,” and that Fitzpatrick should therefore not be held responsible for her actions. Of course, it doesn’t take a law degree to know the “I was just following orders” defense does not routinely absolve culpability in a crime.
“This case demonstrates just how weak our voter registration system is with respect to preventing illegal activity up front,” Logan Churchwell, spokesman for the Public Interest Law Foundation, told LifeZette in a written statement.
“A person presented a foreign passport to identify herself when getting a license for non-U.S. citizens. Still, a DMV officer must accept a completed voter registration application. Until states take the lead in implementing improved citizenship verification mechanisms in voter registration, we’re going to continue to see cases like this one,” Churchwell said.
The ruling comes only days after another resident alien, Rosa Maria Ortega, was sentenced to eight years in prison in Texas, to be followed inevitably by deportation, for voting illegally there in 2012 and 2014. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the ruling "shows how serious Texas is about keeping its elections secure."
"The Trump administration has the right and responsibility to study the true extent of illegal voting by ineligible persons," said Chris Adams, president of the Public Interest Law Foundation, in a prepared statement. "Hopefully, [the Fitzpatrick] case marks a new chapter for election integrity in the years ahead."
http://www.lifezette.com/polizette/a...d-voter-fraud/
Noncitizen Faces Deportation for Illegal Voting After Getting Driver’s License
by LOGAN CHURCHWELL
14 Feb 2017
Chicago, IL
A Peruvian woman originally hoping to become a naturalized citizen in Illinois now faces deportation after her record of illegal voter registration and casting ballots for federal candidates has come to light.
Margarita Del Pilar Fitzpatrick, a Peruvian woman married to an American citizen in Illinois, became registered to vote at a driver’s license issuing office in 2005, according to court records. She presented a valid green card and passport from her home country to satisfy the identification requirements to obtain a license. Because of guidelines under the National Voter Registration Act (a.k.a. Motor Voter), the DMV employee reflexively offered Fitzpatrick the opportunity to register to vote, despite her documented alien status.
Having studied English in college and working as a translator in the medical field, Fitzpatrick reportedly questioned the state employee if she was “supposed to” register. The DMV agent responded, “it’s up to you.” The woman would later sign a document attesting to U.S. citizenship, allowing her to become a fully registered voter, reportedly casting ballots for federal candidates in 2006.
Federal law currently bars noncitizens from voting in federal or state elections, potentially leading to deportation.
Fitzpatrick’s voting record would likely have remained unnoticed had she not pursued citizenship and self-reported her registration experience.
In the waning days of the Obama Administration, Fitzpatrick appealed her deportation order to the U.S. 7th Circuit in Chicago, arguing that the DMV employee essentially entrapped her for not counseling against registering to vote. The appellate court placed little stock in her defense, noting that she was fully literate in English and the conversation was likely scripted from the state officer’s perspective.
DMV employees and other state agents that are required to offer voter registration opportunities are barred from saying “anything that will discourage an applicant … from registering to vote,” the court noted.
In general, state agencies providing voter registration opportunities are not in the business of verifying the contents of applications. Documents are checked for completion and are then forwarded to appropriate election officials. In Fitzpatrick’s case, the Illinois DMV employee’s duty was complete when they had an attestation of voting eligibility in hand.
Election law expert J. Christian Adams said in a statement shortly after the 7th Circuit ruling that the case “demonstrates how difficult it is to pursue noncitizen voting crimes without verification measures in voter registration.”
As Breitbart Texas has reported recently, states like Texas and Virginia are currently considering legislation that would require documented proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote, similar to current law in Kansas.
The 7th Circuit panel inquired if individuals like Ms. Fitzpatrick were priorities for removal by the Department of Homeland Security. Government attorneys told the court on January 17 that “the answer was yes.”
http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/...ivers-license/
Repeal the left’s Motor Voter Law: It is breaking up immigrant families
By Thomas Lifson
February 20, 2017
The Usual Suspects of the left are strangely silent as a legal immigrant, a mother of three American-born children, married to an American citizen, faces deportation. The reasons are twofold.
Margarita Del Pilar Fitzpatrick committed a crime that the left insists never happens: illegal voting by a non-citizen. Mrs. Fitzpatrick now faces deportation, and separation from her husband and children, unless they can obtain residency in her native Peru, thanks to the left. The Cook County Record explains:
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has denied the application of a Peruvian national to stay in the country, following the discovery that the non-citizen voted twice in federal elections. (snip)
She had been living in the U.S. for three years and applied for a driver's license in Illinois. During the application process, she had to fill out forms at the Illinois Secretary of State's driver services facility and used her green card and Peruvian passport as identification. While filling in the forms she admitted that she checked a box on the form claiming she was a citizen of the U.S.
"The form sternly warns aliens not to check that box, and Fitzpatrick does not contend that she has any difficulty in understanding written English," the court documents state.
On the form there was a checkbox that would allow her to register as a voter. She did so after the clerk inquired whether she wanted to register. She then proceeded to vote for federal officials twice in 2006.
The court emphasized that non-residents were not allowed to vote in elections. There is a statute that allows for the removal of non-citizens who vote in state or federal elections.
The clerk acted in accord with the law, The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) (52 U.S.C. § 20501 - 52 U.S.C. § 20511). That law, frequently called "Motor Voter," was pushed by ACORN and was so critical to the left's strategy for political dominance that both Cloward and Piven attended the signing ceremony, standing behind Bill Clinton as he signed it into law.
http://admin.americanthinker.com/ima.../197969_5_.jpg
Mrs. Fitzpatrick:
... claims that the clerk at the driver services facility told her it was up to her if she checked the box to register to vote. However, the court documents state that what the clerk told her "was a refusal to give advice, not an assurance that it was lawful to register."
The court record also noted that it is against federal law for state officials to say anything that may discourage an individual applying for a driver's license from registering to vote.
By terms of the law, the clerk was not able to discourage Mrs. Fitzpatrick from registering to vote, even though it was an illegal act that eventually led to her deportation order. That created a situation in which she may have felt she had received approval.
In the law, a facility that represents a danger to the public but is accessible is called an "attractive nuisance," and its owner faces legal liability for damages that result from its availability. The classic example is an unfenced swimming pool that could lure children to use it and then face danger of injury.
It is clear to me that the Motor Voter Law, a headliner strategic goal of the left, is an attractive nuisance for immigrants, legal and illegal, luring them into felonious behavior that could expel them from the country no matter how deep their family roots have become.
The left is embarrassed by the fate of Mrs. Fitzpatrick. It is up to conservatives to make her story known and to push for repeal of The National Voter Registration Act of 1993.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/..._families.html
