Mayor Anthony Williams said at a news conference last Monday that United States citizenship should not be the standard for voting in municipal elections in Washington, D.C. He hopes to enfranchise all taxpaying residents of the District of Columbia. In 1991, Takoma Park, Maryland became the first municipality to allow immigrants to vote in local elections. Since then several communities across the nation have voted to allow their non-citizen residents to vote.
Mayor Williams’ proposal is an excellent one. Resident aliens and U.S. citizens are subject to the same laws, pay the same taxes and attend the same schools. At the age of 18, all males residing in the United States, citizens or not, are required to register for the selective service. It is simply unfair that resident aliens should be subject to the same duties as citizens but denied equal rights. By denying taxpaying immigrants the right to vote, municipal governments wrongly imply that certain members of the community are more valuable than others.
This is not just a question of fairness. Mayor Williams’ proposal follows a report, issued by a Latino coalition, that local political participation by Hispanics is extremely low. Hispanics make up approximately eight percent of the population of the District, but they make up less than two percent of registered voters. And while the vast majority of Hispanics living in the District are legal residents, many are in the country because of special programs granting Central American immigrants the right to work in the United States. Citizenship is therefore extremely difficult for them to obtain. Because of their inability to influence local politics, Hispanics cannot overcome access barriers to many essential services, such as health care and education. How can active members of a community, whatever country they might hail from, be denied access to one of the major forces of change within that community? Hispanics in the District are subject to de facto discrimination that, without a vote, they have no way of fighting.
Some citizens fear that if resident aliens, who have not sworn an oath to the United States, are given the right to vote, they will vote against the interests of the United States. But by choosing to live in our community, most resident aliens have already implicitly pledged their commitment to it. Few people would vote against their own interests, and therefore the interests of their community.
Resident aliens participate in the District’s economy and culture right alongside its citizens. Their children attend local schools and are U.S. citizens themselves. And yet, resident aliens are denied the ability to effect change in the community that belongs to both their families and ours. Resident aliens are a valuable and legitimate presence in our community. We should treat them as such.
