As an immigrant that just recently got citizenship, even though I had been
living in this country for 13 years I find this topic very interesting. The
right to vote and the 1996 anti immigration laws passed by the Republican
congress were the main reason I finally became a citizen. However it was a hard
choice to make since it is an expensive and time consuming process, I had to
take time off from work on several different occasions and the fee for
naturalization was $250.00 not counting money for pictures plus fingerprints
and other fees. In addition, you have to give up citizenship in your native
country since the US does not recognize dual citizenship and that is a
difficult decision to make. I have always thought that legal immigrants, at
least those with resident status, should be allowed to vote in local elections
since we pay taxes and are affected by local decisions in the same way as
everybody else.
Luisa
Powderhorn Park
Rosalind Nelson wrote:
> Nathan Hunstad wrote:
> >In some parts of Europe non-citizens are already allowed to vote in local
> elections.
>
> I was living in the Netherlands in the mid-eighties when noncitizen
> immigrants were first given that right. In order to be eligible, a person
> had to have lived in the country for at least five years. Nathan and
> others who support this idea, have you considered what sort of requirements
> we would want to have here?
>
> My hunch is that the Netherlands and other European countries have a higher
> percentage of resident aliens who never persue citizenship. All the same,
> I think it would be a good idea here, for all the reasons that others have
> given. People who pay taxes and send their kids to public schools ought to
> have some say in how the taxes are spent and how their kids get educated.
> And resident aliens would be encouraged to take more of an interest in the
> political system and the community at large.
>
> Since I was in the Netherlands for only two years, I was never able to vote
> there. But because I knew that I might stay long enough to be eligible, I
> made more of an effort to understand the political system and the
> government of the community where I lived.
>
> Rosalind Nelson
> Bancroft
>
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