US Senators Rick Scott (R-FL) and Roger Marshall (R-KS) have filed the Demanding Citizenship in D.C. Elections Act in response to a recent federal court ruling permitting for illegal immigrant voting in D.C. elections.
The court’s decision arose out of a D.C. resident’s challenge to the city’s Local Resident Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2022.
The act permitted “otherwise eligible non-citizen residents” to participate in elections for Mayor, Council members, Attorney General, and other District measures.
The US House of Representatives subsequently overturned the act’s passage in bipartisan manner, but the Democrat-majority Senate refused to do so.
Congressman Byron Donalds (R-FL) was among the lawmakers spearheading efforts to nullify the act.
Given the Senate’s inaction, undocumented immigrants residing in Washington D.C. obtained voting rights last April 26.
Senators Scott and Marshall’s legislation has resurfaced the issue, creating what could be the beginning of yet another political battle over immigration and undocumented immigrants’ legal status.
The Senators argue that, given Washington D.C. has no state constitution to safeguard elections, Congress must step in to ensure electoral integrity.
“It is unacceptable for anyone who is not a United States citizen to vote in any election, and the Democrat-run District of Columbia is no exception,” said Scott.
Marshall argued Democrat plans to permit for undocumented immigrants to vote in D.C. forewarns their future plans for the rest of the nation.
“This is election interference by design,” said Marshall, “with the ultimate goal being the unraveling of our free and fair elections by engineering the largest-scale invasion of our country and turning them out at the ballot box to perpetually 'cook the books' for Democrats.”
Similar measures activating voting powers for undocumented immigrants’ have been reportedly proposed in states like New York and Vermont.
