DC council takes first step in passing bill to let non-citizens vote in local elections
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The DC government this week took a step to allow the district’s 50,000 non-citizens to vote as Texas Governor Greg Abbott continues to transport migrants to the liberal city.
In a vote of 12-1 on Tuesday, the DC Council voted to change the election code to allow all non-citizens living in the District of Columbia to vote in local elections, ending a nearly decade-long lasting effort.
The bill, if passed in a second vote, would entitle all non-citizens, including green card holders, temporary residents with visas and undocumented immigrants.
It comes as thousands of migrants have been bussed to DC from Texas in an initiative by Governor Abbott to bring the Southern border crisis to Democratic sanctuary cities and the helm of federal decision-making that affects border policy.
The relocation of incoming border crossings, especially to some prominent locations, has become a popular method of protest for border states who feel pleas for help are being ignored by the Biden administration.
Non-citizens otherwise eligible to vote in the district could vote in local races, including for mayor, attorney general, school board, and for DC council members and chairman.
However, they would not be able to vote in federal elections.
The Washington, DC council released the first vote this week to allow the 50,000 noncitizens living in the district to vote in local elections. Buses carrying migrants from Southern Border States have been transported to DC since April
The vote comes the same week that another bus of migrants arrived in front of Vice President Kamala Harris’ residence before dawn on Thursday morning.
Many Maryland municipalities, including Hyatsville and Takoma Park, allow non-residents to vote in local elections.
New York City, which also faces a barrage of migrants being transported to the city from Texas, passed similar legislation last year that allowed the 800,000 non-citizens in the Big Apple to vote.
A state court overturned that decision in June, ruling that it violated the New York Constitution.
Another bus carrying migrants was dropped off Thursday morning near Vice President Kamala Harris’ residence in Washington, DC. More than 8,200 migrants have been transported to the district from Texas since April.
DC Ward 1 Councilor Brianne K. Nadeau introduced the bill as a title sponsor with six other councilors in June 2021 to allow non-residents to vote in local elections.
The bill was passed unanimously last week by the Justice and Public Security Commission.
“In the district, we understand the disenfranchisement,” Ward 6 councilor and bill co-sponsor Charles Allen said at last week’s committee meeting. “It’s personal.”
The councilman refers to DC’s general struggle for statehood and the ability to gain representation in the United States Congress.
At dawn on Thursday, a bus stopped near Harris’ home where more than two dozen migrants disembarked and were greeted by relief and volunteer groups.
The migrants were then boarded on smaller buses and transported to nearby accommodations.
More than two dozen migrants got off the bus outside the Naval Observatory in northwest Washington, DC from Texas on Thursday with all their belongings in plastic bags
Republicans warn of impeachment of DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in response to the crisis on the southern border.
South Carolina GOP Senator Lindsey Graham and Texas Ted Cruz sent a letter to Mayorkas collecting Customs and Border Protection (DBP) data showing how the situation at the border has deteriorated since President Joe Biden took office.
“This is gross dereliction of duty and, if not corrected quickly, could lead to impeachment,” the senators warned the head of Homeland Security in a letter dated Tuesday.
“Your inability to faithfully enforce this country’s immigration laws and your willful blindness to the very real humanitarian crisis on our southern border amounts to a gross dereliction of duty and a breach of your oath of office,” added Cruz and Graham, both of whom are on the legal basis. Commission.
To stem the impact of massive illegal immigration in border communities, states like Texas, Arizona and Florida regularly transport migrants to refuges in other parts of the country, including Washington, DC, New York City and Chicago.
Migrants who arrived in DC on Thursday morning were met by local aides and volunteers who loaded them into smaller buses and transported them to nearby accommodations.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) figures show that in August the total number of encounters with migrants reached more than 2 million in fiscal year 2022 – a record high
More than 8,200 migrants have so far been sent from Texas to DC on more than 195 bus trips north, according to Governor Abbott’s office.
Another 3,000 were sent from Texas to New York City and nearly 1,000 to Chicago.
Recently, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis sent a plane full of about 50 migrants to the wealthy island of Martha’s Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts, a move labeled by Democrats as a “political stunt” that led to a lawsuit and chatter of congressional investigations.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott last month sent two buses carrying migrants to the gates of the Naval Observatory, where the vice president’s residence is located. Another bus from Abbott state also dropped off about 50 additional migrants outside Harris DC’s home on Monday — many of whom are Venezuelans.
Senators Lindsey Graham (left) and Tex Cruz (right) wrote a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas this week warning of imminent impeachment over his inaction in the southern border crisis.
Shortly after taking office, Harris was tasked with tackling the migration crisis, which quickly transformed her office into a role that sought to look at the root causes that lead people to leave their homelands to migrate north and seek asylum in The United States
Republicans have criticized Harris for doing nothing to suppress migration on the southern border – and have criticized Secretary Mayorkas for
CBP figures released last month brought the number of meetings in fiscal year 2022 to more than 2.1 million, a huge record – and there’s one month of reporting left in the year.
This represents a 437 percent increase from the same point in fiscal year 2020.
There was also a 279 percent increase in meetings from fiscal year 2020 to 2021 — the last year of President Donald Trump’s term and the first year of the Biden administration.