Repeal the left’s Motor Voter Law: It is breaking up immigrant families
The Usual Suspects of the left are strangely silent as a legal immigrant, a mother of three American-born children, married to an American citizen, faces deportation. The reasons are twofold.
Margarita Del Pilar Fitzpatrick committed a crime that the left insists never happens: illegal voting by a non-citizen. Mrs. Fitzpatrick now faces deportation, and separation from her husband and children, unless they can obtain residency in her native Peru, thanks to the left. The Cook County Record explains:
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has denied the application of a Peruvian national to stay in the country, following the discovery that the non-citizen voted twice in federal elections. (snip)
She had been living in the U.S. for three years and applied for a driver's license in Illinois. During the application process, she had to fill out forms at the Illinois Secretary of State's driver services facility and used her green card and Peruvian passport as identification. While filling in the forms she admitted that she checked a box on the form claiming she was a citizen of the U.S.
"The form sternly warns aliens not to check that box, and Fitzpatrick does not contend that she has any difficulty in understanding written English," the court documents state.
On the form there was a checkbox that would allow her to register as a voter. She did so after the clerk inquired whether she wanted to register. She then proceeded to vote for federal officials twice in 2006.
The court emphasized that non-residents were not allowed to vote in elections. There is a statute that allows for the removal of non-citizens who vote in state or federal elections.
The clerk acted in accord with the law, The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) (52 U.S.C. § 20501 - 52 U.S.C. § 20511). That law, frequently called "Motor Voter," was pushed by ACORN and was so critical to the left's strategy for political dominance that both Cloward and Piven attended the signing ceremony, standing behind Bill Clinton as he signed it into law.
Mrs. Fitzpatrick:
... claims that the clerk at the driver services facility told her it was up to her if she checked the box to register to vote. However, the court documents state that what the clerk told her "was a refusal to give advice, not an assurance that it was lawful to register."
The court record also noted that it is against federal law for state officials to say anything that may discourage an individual applying for a driver's license from registering to vote.
By terms of the law, the clerk was not able to discourage Mrs. Fitzpatrick from registering to vote, even though it was an illegal act that eventually led to her deportation order. That created a situation in which she may have felt she had received approval.
In the law, a facility that represents a danger to the public but is accessible is called an "attractive nuisance," and its owner faces legal liability for damages that result from its availability. The classic example is an unfenced swimming pool that could lure children to use it and then face danger of injury.
It is clear to me that the Motor Voter Law, a headliner strategic goal of the left, is an attractive nuisance for immigrants, legal and illegal, luring them into felonious behavior that could expel them from the country no matter how deep their family roots have become.
The left is embarrassed by the fate of Mrs. Fitzpatrick. It is up to conservatives to make her story known and to push for repeal of The National Voter Registration Act of 1993.