Maxwell Frost: “Mr. Speaker, once again, my Republican colleagues want to deflect on this issue focusing on undocumented immigrants.…”

“Mr. Speaker, once again, my Republican colleagues want to deflect on this issue focusing on undocumented immigrants. Undocumented immigrants are unlikely to vote in local D.C. elections. Again, why? It is because the D.C. voter roll is public record. Undocumented immigrants are not going to want to identify themselves, including their address, where they live. Noncitizen voting, again, this is consistent in a lot of jurisdictions across the entire country. We talked about 20 municipalities doing this to allow universal adult suffrage, the ability for people to take part in local elections. The other thing, really quick, that one of my Republican colleagues brought up that the purpose of this bill is to: 'Stop diluting the voices of American citizens.' What is really diluting the voice of American citizens are voter suppression laws like we see in the South and like we see in Florida where I am from: poll taxes, voter roll purges, and voter intimidation. That is what is diluting the voice of American citizens. I haven't heard a single Republican in this debate talk about ensuring that citizens who live in D.C. can have full representation in Congress. Where is that? I bring it up again. In every issue Republicans want to talk about protecting us by taking away stuff from other people. They never want to talk about giving citizens what they deserve. The citizens of D.C.…”