Two immigration stories on Memeorandum right now:
Immigrants Find Voting Can Come At a Cost, if you’re not a citizen:
On his way home from work one evening in 1992, he came across a group of volunteers in Brooklyn registering people to vote. Mr. Joseph, a legal permanent resident who had immigrated from St. Kitts eight years earlier, decided it was time to sign up. He cast a ballot in that year’s presidential election, he said, and in every one since.
His participation in American democracy came at a steep cost: The government is now trying to deport him.
In the United States, only citizens are allowed to vote in national and statewide elections. And while immigrants who are granted permanent residency — a green card — enjoy an array of privileges, including the right to work, they can lose them all and be expelled from the country if the authorities discover that they have even registered to vote.
That’s the law, folks, which is not made clear to every immigrant, and then there’s this:
Confusing matters, permanent residents are permitted to vote in some municipalities, though not in New York City. And elections officials around the country do not customarily verify the citizenship of newly registered voters. Arizona is the only state that requires proof of citizenship; Georgia passed a similar law, which has not taken effect.
The immigration laws in the US are a disaster, and the immigration process is even worse.
Meanwhile, a Democrat state senator in Kentucky calls his constituents rednecks for not wanting to provide free healthcare to illegal aliens:
Calling Jeff Foxworthy…
