Donald Trump wants to deport them, and Councilman Hugo Soto-Martínez wants to give them the right to vote in municipal elections.
Trump accuses undocumented immigrants of voting in federal elections and wants to implement a Vote ID; the councilman wants to include them on the voter registration list to elect city officials in Los Angeles.
What seems like a long shot could be another element in the political debate and in the Trump Administration’s attacks against the immigrant community and the state of California.
A few months ago, the city of Los Angeles experienced one of the most violent immigration raids, which brought the city to the brink of chaos as ICE agents combed the city.
However, Hugo Soto-Martínez believes it is fair to give them the right to vote.
Soto-Martínez, whose parents were at one time undocumented, said his proposal would help L.A.’s immigrant communities at a time when they are under assault from the Trump administration, which has launched immigration raids around the country and sought to revoke birthright citizenship.
“After my parents immigrated here from Mexico, they worked hard, paid taxes, and raised their children in our public schools, but for decades they had no say in the decisions shaping their community until they became citizens,” Soto-Martínez told the Los Angeles Times.
City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez, who represents an Echo Park-to-Hollywood district, released a proposal Wednesday to ask voters in the Nov. 3 election to give the council the power to let noncitizens vote in city elections, including those for mayor and City Council, as well as for Los Angeles Board of Education seats.
Dylan Kendall, who is running against Soto-Martínez, also criticized the proposal, but for different reasons. She said she fears it would lead to the creation of “a new government list of noncitizen voters at the very moment Trump’s ICE brigade is looking for more ways to track, target, and kidnap undocumented people.”
“What he’s proposing now sounds less like protecting our community and more like asking people to sign onto a public list that exposes undocumented neighbors to greater danger,” she also told The Times.
Angelica Salas, who heads the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, said her group favors the proposal, saying too many Angelenos — green card holders, DACA recipients and others — are facing “taxation without representation.”
“They get taxed the same way. They send their kids to the schools. They have to deal with the repercussions of the decisions of their representatives,” she said. “So they should have a say as to who represents them.”
The proposal faces multiple hurdles that could derail it. The council must vote to put the measure on the ballot and after that, voters would have to approve it. After that, the council would still need to pass an ordinance revising city election law.
The proposal, which was also signed by Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, now heads to the council’s rules committee for consideration.
Federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections. However, states are allowed to set their own local and statewide election rules.
