Open border crowd pulls out the big (racist) guns against city to allow illegals to vote.
In advance of the 2009 citywide elections, a coalition of immigrant andadvocacy organizations is reigniting a fight to give noncitizens theright to vote in municipal elections, drawing the ire of opponents whoargue that voting is a right for American citizens only.
At a rally outside City Hall yesterday organized by the New YorkCoalition to Expand Voting Rights, supporters of a City Council billthat would extend voting rights to 1.3 million noncitizen New Yorkerssaid it’s unfair that immigrant residents pay more than $18 billion instate income taxes when they can’t vote for their representatives. Thegroup is planning to pressure elected officials to back thelegislation, which has been on file for more than two years but hasn’tmoved forward.
A supporter of the bill, Council Member Robert Jackson of Harlem,said in his district alone there are about 40,000 people who are payingtaxes and don’t have the right to vote. He said the coalition needed topublicize the position of every council member on the proposal and thereasons for their stances.
He suggested that those opposed to giving noncitizens the right tovote might be motivated by racism, and noted that in the early years ofAmerican history noncitizens were allowed to vote. That ended afterWorld War I.
“This was the law in the United States of Americafor many, many years and why don’t they support it now? Is it whatsomebody said earlier — because if you look at the skin complexion ofthe immigrants now they are mainly people of color versus 100 yearsago, when they mainly were white,” he said. “These are questions thatpeople have to start asking.”