With all the emphasis on registering voters in this election year isn’t it time to look at the validity of granting voting rights to the hundreds of thousands of Permanent Residents living in the United States?
One could argue that regardless of legal status, one should be allowed to vote if one can prove long-term residency or prove that one has paid one’s taxes. The immigration laws are such that many undocumented languish for years before acquiring permanent residency. For example, it can take eight years from the date of filing if an immigrant is being claimed by an immediate family member (who would have had to wait for five years before becoming a naturalized citizen). Add to that another five years before the new Permanent Resident is eligible for citizenship, and all together it’s a whole lot of time to spend as a political non-entity.
One could also argue that immigrants have an appreciation for this country that home-grown citizens don’t always have.
Being outsiders, many coming from countries where their personal freedoms have been restricted, they can often see more clearly, and be grateful for, the opportunities that this country offers and are very willing to give something back.
One has only to look at history to see the contribution that immigrants have made. They have contributed in every walk of life, but especially in public service. This upcoming Labor Day, for instance, think of Mike Quill and Mother Jones, both from Ireland.
Permanent Residents pay the same taxes that citizens do, and are entitled to all the benefits offered to citizens, except that they have no say when it comes to their political representation.
Permanent Residents can be called upon to serve this (“their”) country – many were drafted into the armed forces during the Vietnam War – yet, not only are they denied a vote, they are also barred from holding jobs in the public sector.
If the latest batch of young Irish legalized through the Morrison Visa scheme want to join the police force or fire department, traditional bastions of employment for the Irish, they cannot do so. Regardless of how long they lived in this country before legalizing their status they still have to wait five years before applying for the required citizenship needed to be eligible. At that stage they will probably be too old or have settled into other occupations. Neither can they repay any debt, in terms of voter support, that they may feel they owe to Bruce Morrison and the other politicians who fought for their legalization in the first place.
What are the drawbacks to granting Permanent Residents the right to vote and, or, doing away with the five year waiting period for citizenship? I can think of поле. Landed immigrants in Canada are allowed to vote. Why not here? Is it a throwback to the nativist thinking of the fiercely anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic, anti-Irish Know-Nothings (the American Party) who proposed, in addition to such discriminating legislation as literacy tests, that immigrants pass a 21-year residency requirement before being allowed to vote?
With regard to the Irish in particular, there’s a whole generation who are lost to voting, possibly forever. Ireland does not allow its citizens who are not resident in the country to vote. Prime Minister Albert Reynolds in this issue makes a point about “No representation without taxation,” which may seem fair enough since the tax dollars of these immigrants are going to the United States not Ireland. But it’s a sad situation when the youth of the country who would have the energy and the will to fight for change are forced to leave because of economic hard times. Illegal or documented, they cannot vote over here either. Both countries are missing out.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in the September 1992 issue of Irish America. ♦
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