Dems Accuse GOP of 'Racism' for Voting Down D.C. Law That Gives Illegals the Right to Vote

The Constitution and the District of Columbia Home Rule Act give Congress the explicit authority to oversee affairs in Washington, D.C., and veto laws passed by the city council that are dangerous or unwise.

So when Democrats in the House got the vapors when Republicans — along with several dozen Democrats — vetoed two local laws that gave illegal aliens and non-citizens the right to vote in local elections and radically reduced penalties for serious crimes, they were just passing gas.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) got very angry and stomped her little foot. Republicans “claim they believe in the sacred right to vote while denying that right to vote to an overwhelmingly Black city,” she said while accusing Republicans of trying to “meddle into the business of D.C. residents.”

Well, the Constitution of the United States gives Congress the authority to “meddle” in the affairs of the District. And D.C. residents are perfectly free to vote — just not for a voting member of Congress or two senators. The District is not a state. If the founders wanted Washington, D.C., to be a state, they would have made it one. Instead, Article I, Section 8, Clause 17 of the Constitution “provided for a District (not exceeding ten miles square)” over which Congress would “exercise exclusive legislation.”

And the reason it’s not a state is to prevent any one state from holding too much power by being home to the national government.  Of course, this is exactly what Democrats want, and God help us if they ever get their way.

The two laws that Republicans in the House want to veto are a law that gives non-citizens and illegal aliens the right to vote and another law that “reforms” the criminal justice system by reducing or eliminating penalties for serious crimes.

Fox News:

Republicans also pointed out that the D.C. laws are dangerous. Last week, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said the law allowing non-citizens to vote “sends the wrong message to those who are seeking to come into our country illegally.” Other Republicans have said it would make the crisis at the border even worse by giving non-citizens more incentive to enter the country illegally.

Republicans noted that crime is soaring and that the D.C. Council law reducing criminal penalties would only hurt residents, tourists, foreign diplomats and others in the nation’s capital.

“There’s a crime crisis in America’s capitol city,” said House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.). “According to the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, carjackings in the District have increased by 90% compared to this time last year. Total property crime is up 31%, and homicides are up 29%.”

“But the radical D.C. Council has chosen to prioritize legislation that will turn this crime crisis into a catastrophe,” he said. “The D.C. Council’s progressive soft-on-crime legislation eliminates almost all the mandatory minimum sentencing requirements for violent crimes, and it drastically reduces the maximum penalties allowable to the courts.”

The criminal justice reform measure was vetoed by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, but the council passed it anyway. Despite the charges of “racism,” 42 Democrats voted with Republicans to pass the resolution rejecting the law allowing non-citizens to vote, and 31 Democrats voted to eliminate the law reducing criminal penalties in the District. That’s as bipartisan as things in Congress get these days.