How I learned to stop worrying about non-citizens voting in LA elections

?Que en la frigada?

what nonsense?

This is what I said after learning that Los Angeles Council Member Hugo Soto-Martinez wants to allow non-citizens to vote in city and school board elections.

Talk about a solution in search of a problem, considering what Angelenos are facing right now.

the ghost of while la migra The city is still troubled, with even more devastating problems that affect everyone – affordability, Accommodationtraffic pollution. Perhaps Soto-Martinez and his colleagues should focus on fixing those things first and better sell their message to voters instead of raising a new issue?

I know this first-time council member comes from a good place. His parents, like my father, were undocumented, and he has been a strong supporter of immigrants dating back to his labor organizing days. I have friends without legal status and people in the DACA program who came to the US illegally as children. I believe it is a fair idea to give them, as well as green card holders and others with papers, a chance to participate in the election.

But to summarize the book of Ecclesiastes, there is a time and a place for everything. In 2026, Angelenos should focus on electing people and approving initiatives that will make the city better for everyone, not a narrow issue benefiting one segment of the population.

So I called Soto-Martinez and challenged him to convince doubting Tomas.

They hope their proposal will reach the City Council later this month for a vote on whether to place it on the November ballot. If voters pass the measure, it goes back to the council to decide when — if ever — immigrants should be granted voting rights.

This proposal, already maligned in conservative media, is not as radical as it sounds. Non-citizens are already banned from voting in federal elections, but they have a well-established history of participation in local elections, including in Vermont and Maryland. If they have a child in the district they can already vote in LA neighborhood council elections and San Francisco school board elections.

Moreover, L.A. has long led the way in integrating undocumented immigrants into the fabric of civic life.

It’s a sanctuary city where Mayor Karen Bass has stood up against President Trump’s xenophobia. Where eight out of 15 members of the council are immigrants or children of immigrants. Where LAUSD Supt. Alberto Carvalho – himself previously undocumented – has made an effort to make local schools as welcoming as possible (Carvalho is on paid leave after the FBI raided his home and office earlier this year). Even the LAPD learned decades ago that it is better to embrace undocumented immigrants than blame them for their lack of legal status.

“If you are contributing to this economy, you should have the right to decide who represents you,” Soto-Martinez told me.

Fair point. But isn’t Trump demanding more than what’s already been done to L.A. just up our noses, making life even more miserable for undocumented immigrants? Can he use the non-citizen voter list as a list of who to deport? Furthermore, doesn’t extending the franchise to non-citizens fuel their crazy conspiracies about stolen elections?

Soto-Martinez replied, “You always hear, ‘Don’t harass the bears, don’t provoke them,’ but you don’t deal with a skunk that way.” “They’re already coming at us. While they’re taking away people’s right to vote on the Supreme Court, we’re expanding it. … And this has nothing to do with Trump. This is about fairness.”

Tell that to Trump.

I mentioned that Santa Ana — a city far more Latino than Los Angeles, though not as liberal — decisively rejected a similar measure in 2024. Soto-Martínez’s fellow Democratic Socialist Council members, Ysabel Jurado and Eunice Hernández, have expressed their support for her measure. But I wonder whether the full council will take it to voters in a year when some members, including Soto-Martinez, are running for re-election.

I could not get any comment from Bass. Council Member Nitya Raman, who is running against him, said in a statement that Soto-Martinez’s push “deserves to be taken seriously” but that “it is important to get this right, and we should not make decisions lightly or quickly.”

“We have to organize,” Soto-Martinez acknowledged. “But we live in a political moment where it’s right to have a conversation about what this city means.”

He has to convince people like Nilja Serrano. She is the president of AVANS, LA County’s largest Latino Democratic Club, and heads the California Democratic Party’s Latino Caucus. not serrano Vokosa – He supported Rick Caruso in the last mayoral election and is now with Bass.

While Serrano thinks Soto-Martinez is on to something, she said voting rights for non-citizens aren’t an issue for the people she’s trying to get to the polls for the June primary and November general election. The economy and Trump’s deportation flood are more on their minds.

I asked whether Soto-Martinez’s proposal would make citizenship affordable for people like him. Serrano and his family came here legally from Guatemala in the 1980s before becoming U.S. citizens, a process that took years.

“Not for me,” he replied. “But it’s hard to say for others. I’ll have to do a little more research.”

So I continued my research, calling someone I was sure would find the idea worthwhile: David Hernandez, president of the Los Angeles County Hispanic Republican Club.

“Isn’t San Francisco already doing this?” The Navy veteran cracked.

I thought Hernandez would make anti-liberal rhetoric, but…

“I believe there is a strong argument,” he said, “that if someone has established residence and is a member of the community and will suffer the consequences of whatever local policies are implemented, they should have a say in who is elected.”

Did the ghost of Joaquin Murrieta, California’s original Avenger Latino, suddenly visit Hernandez? To make sure I heard correctly, I then asked if it was a good thing for non-citizens to vote in LA elections.

How can he support this as a Trump-voting Republican?!

“We have to be practical,” he replied. He approves of non-citizens voting in LA neighborhood council elections, because that is true local control.

Hernandez understands that allowing him to vote in municipal elections could be an insult to the memory of civil rights workers who lost their lives fighting for that right for black Americans. But American citizens are already taking it for granted, he said – turnout in the LA mayoral election in November 2022 was a pitiful 44%.

“Maybe non-citizens will appreciate voting more than some citizens,” he said.

I’m still not entirely convinced that Soto-Martinez’s push is wise right now, but I like that he’s being careful.

“We need to deal with this,” he said of the City Council’s deliberations, which he described as an effort to ensure maximum benefits and minimum consequences.

Let’s see what they come up with in a few weeks.