MA - Debate to allow noncitizens to vote in elections

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massac ... ts_debate/

LETTING NONCITIZENS VOTE
Descendants debate
As City Council takes up the issue, family histories fuel disagreement
By Matt Viser, Globe Staff | April 12, 2007

Szmulek Rozental sailed into New York Harbor April 10, 1948, a 16-year-old who had survived the horrors of a German concentration camp. Over the course of his new life in America, he would change his name to Steve Ross, learn English, and raise a family in Newton, imbuing his children with the gratitude he felt for a country that welcomed him when so much of the world had been hostile.

"I grew up hearing every day of my life that I should be grateful to be an American," one of those children, Councilor Michael P. Ross of District 8, said yesterday.

As the City Council took up a controversial proposal yesterday to grant noncitizens the right to vote in Boston elections, Ross is one of the measure's leading proponents, drawing on the deeply held beliefs of his immigrant father.

But another city councilor who comes from immigrant stock, Salvatore LaMattina of District 1, is just as fiercely opposing the measure, citing his own family experiences.

LaMattina's grandfather, Silvistro "Sonny" DeRuosi, came from Naples and led a life in America not unlike that of Steve Ross and millions of other immigrants. He moved to East Boston in the early 1920s, toiling as a factory worker at General Electric and as a waiter at several Italian restaurants to support a wife and 11 children.

According to a story that became a refrain of LaMattina's childhood, DeRuosi labored for his citizenship so that he could vote, expressly for James Michael Curley, the long-serving mayor of Boston.

The message DeRuosi passed on: Citizenship and voting go together, as fundamental pieces of American life and identity.

"To him, voting was sacred," LaMattina says now.

Shaped by a wide range of immigrant tales in their own family histories, councilors come to the immigrant voting measure with widely diverging stances. The debate reflects the deeper questions surrounding immigration issues in Boston, where waves of new immigrants are reshaping the city.

With one in four Boston residents foreign-born, immigrants are increasingly a factor in city life, but two-thirds of these residents cannot vote because they are not citizens, a fact that some say unfairly prohibits them from fully participating.

"We have to recognize that the time to do this has come," said Felix Arroyo, the City Council's first Hispanic member, who sponsored the measure.

It would allow legal immigrants who are not US citizens to vote in municipal elections as long as they sign a form indicating they are legal residents of Boston and "in good faith intend to become" US citizens. "It is the right thing to do."

Arroyo was born in Puerto Rico and is a US citizen.

Many on the council are descended from immigrants; about half of the 13 members come from Irish backgrounds, with ancestors who immigrated to Boston. Those councilors did not speak during yesterday's hearing, but privately several said they oppose allowing noncitizens to vote because they feel it would devalue the work previous immigrants went through to become citizens.

Councilor Sam Yoon, the council's first Asian-American, supports Arroyo's measure. His parents left Korea for the United States in 1970, hoping for a better education for their children. They eventually settled in Lebanon, Pa., and did their best to become part of the community while still speaking Korean at home and dining on native dishes of kimchi and bi bim bap. Yoon and his parents became citizens, but it took nearly 10 years.

"As an immigrant, you always fight the sense that you don't belong here," Sam Yoon said in an interview yesterday.

"I ran for this office in part to represent a community that has the same sort of feeling, that we don't belong."

In response to Arroyo's measure, LaMattina sponsored a separate measure yesterday aimed at encouraging citizenship with services such as city-sponsored English classes.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who has been generally supportive of immigration rights issues, has not yet decided whether to support allowing immigrants to vote in city elections, which would need the approval of the Legislature.

"One thing that we should be addressing more than that is to get these immigrants to be citizens first," Menino said in a recent interview. "That's a real issue."

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"We have to recognize that the time to do this has come," said Felix Arroyo, the City Council's first Hispanic member, who sponsored the measure.

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Surprise, surprise, surprise, it's all according to the plan. 8O

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As an immigrant, you always fight the sense that you don't belong here,"

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Ummm, if you're illegal that's right, you don't belong here. :roll:

NO ONE should be allowed to vote unless they are a citizen, I don't give a hang what the Hispanic councilman says. Besides, he has his own agenda and it sure doesn't coincide with mine.

MASS needs our help!!

Please check out our FOCUS CAMPAIGN:

http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... ic&t=60120

I sure agree with you 2ndamendsis .

Any state that would have Ten Kennedy for it's Senator badly needs help.

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Those councilors did not speak during yesterday's hearing, but privately several said they oppose allowing noncitizens to vote because they feel it would devalue the work previous immigrants went through to become citizens.

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Exactly! Let's get emails going and hope these 'privately' members are enough to stop this.

CONSTITUTION anyone??

Hmmmm..............U.S. CONSTITUTION

THIs is NOT what our founding fathers wrote the greatest document in the history of the world for!!

They are trying to circumvent our CONSTITUTION by any means possible!

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It would allow legal immigrants who are not US citizens to vote in municipal elections as long as they sign a form indicating they are legal residents of Boston and "in good faith intend to become" US citizens.

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So what happens when these illegals move to another city or state? Will they expect to get the same voting rights? Will they try to change the laws there?

I DON'T THINK SO!
THEY ONLY DESERVE THE RIGHT TO VOTE AFTER THEY HAVE BECOME U.S. CITIZENS!!!

Boston has no memory of its own Founding Fathers. This is a complete reversal of American loyalty and patriotism.

I have posted this article on the MA Focus campaign thread, yes please send your letters to stop these liberals from allowing noncitizens to vote in MA. Your assistance is greatly appreciated.

done

This is outragious :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:


Immigrants Legal or Illegal should NOT having any voting rights. These morons who support for immigrants to vote locally, what makes us think they will stop locally, next could be Statewide, then God forbid Nationwide. :evil:


This is a very very dangerous road. I guess Councilor Sam Yoon, who ancestry is from Korea, would be please to have North Korea Little Jong ILL and his supporters to come right over and vote. I don't think he would be happy about that, would he?

I remember vividly a news segment where all the main heads of state from the Middle East all gathered I believe in Egypt. This was sometime around 91' I think. A reporter asked Omar Khaddafi , or whatever his name is spelled about the United States. His response was chilling - his reply "One day our people will go over to the United States and we will vote and change your country" :evil: :evil: :evil:

If this doesn't give you chills I don't know what could. This has to stop. We need to hold our politicians accountable and bring suit against them for TREASON.

I have added the email addresses for all Boston City Council members on this focus thread. Please send letters to the Council Members letting them know how you feel about letting noncitizens vote in elections. Should this pass in one state this could set off a chain reaction in other states. With the presidential election coming up next year this would have significant impact on the outcome not to mention the individual states laws.

Here is the thread, please take action:

http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... 184#259184

There are a few points in this article that has me scratching my head.

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It would allow legal immigrants who are not US citizens to vote in municipal elections as long as they sign a form indicating they are legal residents of Boston and "in good faith intend to become" US citizens.
This is a total oxymoron, kind of like the phrase "African American"...Think about it, either its ONE or THE OTHER!!!
You cannot BE BOTH.
Simple huh?....So, how about we JUST LET US CITIZENS vote in our elections. Its that simple.

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Proposal for Non-Citizen Vote Could Affect Boston’s Asians

Sampan, News report, Adam Smith, Posted: Apr 29, 2007

A proposal to allow green card holders in Boston the ability to vote in municipal elections could have far-reaching effects for nearly half of the city's 45,000 Asian Americans, say local experts and office holders.

"It would be huge," said Paul Watanabe of the Institute for Asian American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Just under half of all Asian Americans in Boston are non-citizens, according to a 2004 report -- "Enabling the Asian American Electorate" -- that Watanabe co-authored. If non-citizen permanent residents were allowed to vote, Watanabe estimated that it could potentially increase the Asian American electorate in Boston by more than 20,000. "I think it would be the most significant expansion of the franchise in the city of Boston since the passage of women's suffrage. Its impact would be substantial," he said. Watanabe said he's been advocating for such a proposal for the past decade. Similar measures have been approved by other local governments including Amherst, Cambridge, and Newton, but all are pending state approval.

Boston City Councilor Sam Yoon, who was born in Korea, said he feels it would be fair to those who pay city taxes and use city services to be able to vote in municipal election. "This would be a good thing for city government because such a large part of the people that we serve in Boston are legal immigrants," said Yoon, who co-sponsored Boston City Councilor Felix Arroyo's home rule petition allowing green card holders the ability to vote. "Since representation is the essence of democracy, I think city government would actually do its job better if their voices were represented."

In 2004, more than one in four Boston residents were born outside the U.S., according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Amy Mah Sangiolo, an alderman in Newton, said she believes that if the measure passes, Asian Americans would have a greater voice in issues affecting them locally in Chinatown, such as land use and development.

"It's great," she said of the proposal, which she said would be following the lead of Newton.

Some, however, strongly reject the idea of allowing permanent residents the ability to vote in any elections.

"We are opposed to any measure that allows people who are not citizens of the United State to participate in our democracy. That is a right and privilege of citizenship," said Ira Mehlman, a spokesperson for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a nonprofit based in Washington, DC, that promotes restricting immigration and stopping illegal immigration.

"It dilutes the value of citizenship. If people who have not made a full-fledged commitment to this country are entitled to the same voice in this democracy, then what really is the value of being a citizen?" said Mehlman. But Councilor Arroyo, who co-sponsored the measure, argues that his proposal would encourage immigrants to become citizens because it would give them only a limited ability to vote. He also said that immigrants who pay taxes would acquire representation. "We're talking about a big population that pays the taxes but does not vote. When we look at it from that perspective, it's the right thing to do," he said. In addition, he said, immigrants would have to sign statements that they would pursue citizenship if they are allowed to vote in the city elections.

"But we are not a nation of taxpayers," said Mehlman. "It is a nation of citizen people who have made a higher level of commitment." He said that having immigrants sign statements that they would apply for citizenship would be meaningless because they would not likely be binding.

"If you come here legally and have a green card, it isn't all that onerous to become a citizen of the United States. There's a five-year waiting period in which you are required to show that you are somebody of high character, stay out of trouble and do all the things you are supposed to do, and at the end of the five years, you can apply to become a citizen. Then you are free to participate not only in local elections but in any election you want to vote in."

He added: "They understood that when they came here that there were certain conditions. Coming to the United States as a legal immigrant -- it's a conditional bargain." It's still unclear how the measure will go over in the Boston City Council. Even if approved by the council, the bill would require final approval by the state's Legislature.

Yoon called the proposal "a major uphill battle.

"It would only come into effect if the entire state Legislature agreed with our proposal. So this is the beginning of a long-term effort," he said. After Arroyo co-filed the measure to allow permanent U.S. residents the ability to vote in city elections, Salvatore LaMattina, another city councilor, proposed that the city should determine whether it is working hard enough to promote citizenship.

LaMattina opposes Arroyo's plan and said that "we need to promote citizenship, if you want to empower new immigrants that come to this country, you empower them by letting them become citizens." Still, Arroyo said last week that he has five of the needed seven councilors in support of the proposal. Councilors Charles Yancey, Chuck Turner, and Michael Ross have so far publicly endorsed the proposal, in addition to Yoon and Arroyo.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino has not yet decided, said his spokesperson. At-large councilor Michael Flaherty said: "I'm keeping an open mind," and that he wants to learn more about the matter before taking a position. Arroyo hopes to hold a hearing on the proposal by June.

-M. Thang contributed to this story.

http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_art ... 818ac18824