Speech #1050107334

The essence of this bill is simple and it is based. frankly. on the recommendations of the Secretary of State of California. The Secretary of State of California says there are people voting in California who are not citizens and he does not have the means to check them. Now. somebody said the Immigration and Naturalization cannot support this bill. Frankly. I am shocked that anyone on the other side of the aisle would raise the issue of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. We had a report released Monday that in creating new citizens. according to an outside accounting firm. 90.2 percent of the files were handled wrong. In three offices. 99 percent of the files were handled wrong. If anything. there ought to be a scandal about the fact that the Immigration and Naturalization Service itself. according to this estimate. last year had 38.000 citizens. had 38.000 citizens made citizens who should not have been made citizens. 11.000 of whom. 11.000 of whom were criminals. Now. I would say to my colleagues that. first of all. the real answer ought to be let us overhaul the Immigration and Naturalization Service so it does its job effectively. let us make sure the Social Security system has a computer that works. and then let us allow a Statewhat are we asking a State to do? It is not complicated. We are saying to a State to make sure that the only people participating in their elections are legal American citizens. That is the only criteria here. People get up and make all these comments as though somehow. if they yell racist long enough. if they scream diversity long enough. if they somehow come in here and pretend this is about something elsethis is a very narrow bill. Members who vote against this bill are saying they do not want to know if illegal immigrants are voting. They do not want to know if noncitizens are voting. many of whom. by the way. may be here legally. may have been told they could register even though they were not citizens and may be innocent. All we are saying is an American citizens right to vote is one of their most precious rights. How can we cancel out an American citizen with a noncitizen and not feel that we are somehow cheating the essence of freedom in America? This bill is about citizenship. it is about citizens being allowed to vote. I want to repeat: If a person is an African American and a citizen. they can vote. if they are Asian American and a citizen. they can vote. if they are an Hispanic American and a citizen. they can vote. if they are a European American and a citizen. they can vote. if they are Native Americans and a citizen. they can vote. And. frankly. if their ancestors come from all five categories and they are a citizen. they can vote. This is not about diversity. it is about enforcing the law. And I think to try to vote this down with the sham argument of racism is. in effect. a way of covering up the fact that some Members. in fact. favor allowing noncitizens to vote. allowing people who have no right to vote. and that means canceling out the legal vote of a legal citizen who should have that vote protected as one of the hallmarks of democracy.