In the latest Democrat move to undermine the American system of government, a majority of the New York City council is poised to passed Int. No. 1867 which gives non-citizens the right to vote in municipal elections. Under this law, those who lack citizenship may, if they reside in New York City for only thirty days, vote for mayor, city council, borough presidents, comptroller, and public advocate. They may thus influence what law and policy governs the citizens of New York City. The law is patently unconstitutional, unlawful under immigration law, an assault on citizenship, and ripe for legal challenge.
The council ordinance enables all manner of unvetted non-citizens to alter the course of city governance. It gives the franchise without regard to citizenship eligibility, including to those who have not been vetted by Immigration and Naturalization for citizenship, who may have ties to foreign governments or criminal enterprises or be criminals themselves, who may have allegiance to socialist and communist systems of government antithetical to our republican form, who have not sworn to uphold the Constitution and laws of the United States, and who have not sworn to defend the United States against enemies foreign and domestic (as is required of those who are naturalized).
Indeed, the new law is a slap in the face of those who have undergone the naturalization process because, without satisfying any requirements, it gives non-citizens electoral rights fully equal to naturalized citizens, i.e., fully equal to people vetted by federal immigration officials, who have sworn to reject their allegiance to foreign governments and powers, who have sworn to uphold the Constitution and laws of the United States, and who have sworn to defend the United States against enemies domestic and foreign. The Naturalization Oath of Allegiance to the United States, sworn by every naturalized citizen, reads:"I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God."
The ordinance requires no such proof of eligibility, severance of foreign ties, or oath of allegiance. Rather, it is a mockery of citizenship and an affront to the national integrity of the United States. It gives non-citizens for whom no allegiance to the United States is required the right to select who will determine the laws that will govern citizens. It is electoral lunacy, but it furthers the ambitions of the far-left to destroy the constitutional republic of the United States and American democracy in favor of a new socialist or communist state.
The New York law violates the federal and state constitutions and the oaths of the mayor and city council members who voted for it. It also dilutes, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and Article I, Section 1 of the New York Constitution, the vote of the legal citizens of New York City.
The Fourteenth Amendment defines citizenship for federal and state governments in its first sentence. The Citizenship Clause reads: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States, and of the State wherein they reside.” Under Article I, Section 8, Clause 4 of the Constitution, only Congress may define “naturalization,” which is the power to grant United States citizenship to a person not born here. Under Article II, Section 1 of the New York Constitution, only “citizens” are entitled to vote in the state “at every election for all officers elected by the people.” Under the Supremacy Clause, Article VI, Clause 2, the constitutional definition of citizenship in the Fourteenth Amendment is binding on the City of New York. That definition is the supreme law against which no inferior law, such as the council ordinance, can stand. Indeed, because of that supremacy, no election official should enable the ordinance to be effectuated, for doing so violates their oaths of office which binds them to follow the Constitution of the United States.
The members of the city council thus have no legitimate power to authorize non-citizens to vote and their acts to cause non-citizen voting lack legal legitimacy, should not be implemented, and should be struck down when challenged in court. Those acts are also proof that the city council and mayor lack respect for federal and state constitutional limits on their power. Each who voted for this law violated his or her official oath, which reads: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I am duly qualified, according to the constitution of this state, to exercise the duties of the office to which I have been elected and that I will, to the best of my ability, discharge the duties thereof, and preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of this state and of the United States.”
New York law includes no provision for the recall of elected officials but certainly if the day finally arrives when it dawns on New Yorkers that their elected officials are violating their rights, perhaps they will use the franchise to vote for those officials’ opponents.
Biden Administration and Democrat leaders support illegal entry into the United States by opening the southern border to a mass migration of people from all over the world into our country in derogation of the immigration laws and the Constitution of the United States. That border lawlessness reveals a contempt for the Constitution, the rule of law, the citizens of the United States, both native born and naturalized, and the oaths of office of each such officeholder. The transparent end is to populate the nation with non-citizens who Democrat leaders presume will vote for Democrats if the integrity of election laws can be rent such that proof of citizenship is no longer required. Not only does that move threaten national security, enable criminal syndicates south of the border to effectively set American immigration policy, and bring into the nation drug traffickers, sex traffickers, gang members, and terrorists virtually without limitation, it also causes the devaluation of citizenship and nationhood. It is the means by which power is ceded from citizens to non-citizens such that representative democracy through elected officials is skewed in favor of laws and policies that disfavor citizen interests and deviate from the rule of law and the Constitution. It renders democracy dysfunctional and the rule of law porous. It is a form of national suicide