Lucille Roybal-Allard: “I rise in opposition to the Bereuter-Wicker amendment which prevents legal permanent residents from making campaign…”

“I rise in opposition to the Bereuter-Wicker amendment which prevents legal permanent residents from making campaign contributions. At first glance, this amendment seems innocuous. Why would we want anyone other than U.S. citizens to participate in our political process? Legal permanent residents can't vote; why should they be able to contribute to elections? Hasn't it been proven through prosecutions during the last several years that foreign nationals can't be trusted to participate in the election process? First, legal permanent residents are tax-paying residents of the United States. They are also subject to the draft; in fact, more than 20,000 legal permanent residents are serving honorably at the present time in the U.S. Armed Forces. Many legal permanent residents have filed for U.S. citizenship and are merely waiting for a lengthy naturalization process to be completed. Second, legal permanent residents are already part of our political process. We count them in the census. They determine congressional representation, and, in representing a state or a congressional district, a Member of Congress is entrusted with representing them as well as U.S. citizens residing there. Finally, the prosecutions of a few foreign nationals during the last few years prove nothing. In fact, they emphasize that we make an enormous mistake if we leap to such judgments about entire ethnic groups based on the illegal and reprehensible deeds of a few.”