The House Republicans are preparing votes for the following week to block proposals by the local government of Washington, D.C., to enable illegal immigrants and other non-citizens to vote and to cut penalties for certain violent and nonviolent crimes.
According to conservatives, the Biden administration’s decision to grant the right to vote to noncitizens will encourage more people to enter the country illegally, and lenient sanctions will affect locals in a city where crime is already at an all-time high.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said that Republicans would use an extraordinary power given to Congress by the District of Columbia Home Rule Act to overturn laws passed by the D.C. Council next week.
House Republicans can reject the D.C. Council laws by voting resolutions of disapproval as early as Tuesday. The provision permitting illegal immigrants to vote in the first resolution would be repealed.
On the House floor on Thursday, Scalise stated that the resolution would “undo the D.C. council’s decision to allow illegal aliens to vote.” “As everyone is aware, President Biden has left the southern border wide open. He continues to maintain an open border despite the fact that millions of immigrants have entered our nation illegally.”
The D.C. Council law “sends the wrong message to people who are trying to enter our nation illegally,” according to the measure’s critics. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee and a Republican from Kentucky, was the resolution’s sponsor. He believed that the measure would exacerbate the already problematic immigration situation.
“The D.C. Council’s careless decision to offer non-U.S. citizens and illegal immigrants the power to vote in local elections is an attack on the cornerstone of this country,” Comer stated. “The Council’s action is reckless and will only serve to deepen the ongoing border issue, muzzle American citizens’ voices, and allow foreign foes to buy influence in the capital of our country.”
Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia’s second resolution will allow Congress to reject a D.C. Council measure that lessens criminal penalties and that even Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser of D.C. refused to approve. When these violent crimes are on the rise, the law, among other things, lessens the penalty for offenses like carjacking, robbery, and illegal weapons ownership.
The D.C. Council overruled Bowser’s rejection despite her claims that the measure “sends the wrong message.”
According to Scalise, Congress will make it clear that it “does not approve of the city council’s bold decision to reduce punishments for a number of offenses, including many serious ones,” by voting a resolution disapproving of this ordinance.
The two D.C. laws won’t be overturned even when the House is predicted to pass both resolutions of disapproval and President Biden signs them, as long as the Senate does as well. It’s unclear if one of them will be considered on the Senate floor by Senate Democrats.
