NYC immigrant activists want to give right to vote to legal non-citizens

Do they know that this would open up Pandora's box?

The New Immigrant Community Empowerment group want to allow permanent residents (holding a green card) and other legal immigrants the right to vote in municipal election. The group's representative, Cheryl Wertz, quoted that "more than 50,000 adult noncitizen taxpayers in those two districts are disenfranchised by citizenship voting laws."

In case people are wondering what defines a permanent resident, check wikipedia. This permanent resident card, also known as a Green Card, is proof that the holder has permission to permanently reside and take employment in the U.S. After that, one can apply for naturalisation to become a full U.S. citizen.

Councilman Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn) is the sponsor of the Voting Rights Restoration Act, which has been stalled in the City Council since last year. He states that many years ago, immigrants were allowed to vote. In agreement was CUNY Professor Ron Hayduk, who stated that from 1776 to 1926, immigrants voted in national elections.

Well, people change and so do the laws. Perhaps the citizenry realised that we ought to maintain fair and just elections and these rules and regulations are needed to ensure that. It reminds me of the film, Gangs of New York, where Tammany Hall bought Irish votes. Plus becoming a U.S. citizen was very easy. Make your mark, you are a citizen and a member of the Union Army.

Of course, the processing time should be improved for permanent residents so they can get naturalised, but in the mean time, they know that they are not being accorded all the same rights as given to full U.S. citizens.

I fear that giving legal non-citizens the right to vote will empower immigrant activists to pursue voting rights for illegal aliens. You got 12 million of them waiting to be used as a pawn on the political stage. Follow the system, and help improve it, but do not find ways to go around it. These 50,000 so called non-voters are just amble ammunition for the NYC Democratic Party.