Consider noncitizen voting rights
In an effort to encourage greater civic engagement among those affected by the tremendous backlog in our nation’s immigration system, lawmakers in Massachusetts and across the country have proposed allowing legal permanent residents, more commonly known as “green-card holders,” to vote in municipal elections.
The acrimonious debate over the status of undocumented immigrants has meant less attention paid to the plight of these legal permanent residents — many of whom have lived here for years, contributing their hard-earned tax dollars and serving in the armed forces without having a voice in the political process.
While the proposal remains controversial, a handful of communities in Massachusetts have passed legislation to petition the state government to allow this change for local elections. Supporters also point to the city of Chicago, where noncitizen immigrants can vote in school board elections, and in Maryland, where five towns have passed similar measures.
Many immigrants who want to become naturalized citizens must wait up to ten years or longer before they proudly take their citizenship oaths. Of all immigrants, green-card holders are often among the most heavily invested individuals in their communities, frequently owning property, small businesses or performing vital professional services.
Take Alvaro Lima, the director of research for the Boston Redevelopment Authority, who arrived in the United States almost twenty years ago on a student visa. Diligently jumping through all the procedural hoops to become a permanent resident, Lima’s naturalization process drags on while many high-powered officials in Boston depend on his advice and statistical analysis to shape the city’s future. Yet Lima cannot decide how his own property taxes are spent.
Most Americans remain dubious about extending voting rights to non-citizen immigrants. Doing so, they say, would discourage that final leap to loyal, patriotic citizenship. It’s an idea the 35,000 green- card-holding soldiers in Iraq who cannot vote may disagree with. Attempts should be made at the local level to extend voting rights if lawmakers cannot clear the logjam in Washington. We owe it to all Americans to resolve this, otherwise what is the value in waiting?
Mark Puleo is co-editor of the Brazilian Journal, a bilingual publication in Greater New England.
