The House of Representatives recently passed a bill to prevent illegal immigrants from voting in District of Columbia (DC) elections.
The House bill passed with strong bipartisan support by a vote of 262-143. Fifty-two Democrats joined the Republican majority in favor of keeping voting rights exclusive to American citizens.
In 2022, the District of Columbia Council passed a local law to allow illegal immigrants to vote in their locally-based elections.
“Allowing noncitizens—including illegal aliens and foreign agents—to vote in elections dilutes the voting power of the citizen voter,” said bill sponsor Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX).
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) weighed in stating, “The radical policy from the DC city council to allow noncitizens to decide local elections is anti-American and dilutes the constitutional rights of DC residents.”
The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, enacted in 1996, unequivocally prohibits non-citizens from participating in federal elections.
This law applies to House, Senate, and presidential elections but does not apply to state and local elections. So if local municipalities pass laws that allow illegal immigrants to vote, they can do so in local elections, but not federal races.
What could lead to potential voter fraud are even years when federal races are on the same ballot as local races.
The State Supreme Court of New York ruled the 2021 ordinance in New York City that permitted illegal immigrants to vote in local elections as unconstitutional.
Sixteen municipalities in California, Maryland, and Vermont, as well as Washington D.C., allow illegal immigrants to vote in local elections.
There are 12 states with no explicit impediment to illegal immigrants voting: Arkansas, California, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Washington, and Wisconsin.
Some states are cracking down on illegal immigrants from voting in any election and have gone so far as to pass laws formally blocking it. Each state must intentionally prohibit illegal immigrants from voting in local elections, and some have done exactly that. Seven states amended their state constitutions to explicitly prohibit illegal immigrants from voting including Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, North Dakota, and Ohio.
With deep losses in minority voter support, immigrants, both legal and illegal, are likely to be a big new voter pool for the Democratic party.
Democrats have hit a 60-year low with Black and Hispanic voters. A recent Wall Street Journal poll showed 57% of Black men planned to vote for President Joseph Biden and 30% for President Donald J. Trump.
Compared to 2020, when polls showed 87% support for Biden and just 12% for Trump, it appears minority voters are leaning towards the Republican Party in the race for the White House in 2024.
More than 30 million immigrants are in the country, both legal and illegal, and the Democrats likely see the possibility that illegal immigrants could offset the loss of black and Hispanic voters.
This political point was not lost on Congressman Ralph Norman.
“Biden and Democrats WANT illegal immigration and lots of it,” said Norman, a South Carolina Republican.
Norman believes Democrats encourage illegal immigration, “to prevent losing Democrats seats in the House of Representatives. That’s because people are moving away from liberal (strongholds) because of the way local Democrats have so poorly mismanaged those cities.”
He added “While some states and municipalities do allow illegal immigrants to vote in local and state elections, that is not (yet) the case in federal elections. But YOU BETTER BELIEVE that’s a goal of the left.”