Representative Nicole Malliotakis held a press conference in Staten Island to declare that she possesses solid evidence indicating that city officials are actively conspiring to allow illegal immigrants to register to vote. Malliotakis made a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request to access the agreement between New York City and Homes for the Homeless, which manages the Staten Island migrant facility. Within the agreement’s appendix, Malliotakis noticed language that seemed to instruct the nonprofit to provide voter registration paperwork to the migrant residents. According to FOX News, Malliotakis stated, “This is the smoking gun that proves what we’ve been saying all along, that the city intends to register noncitizens to vote, and even those who are residing in these migrant shelters for just 30 days.” She believes that this should be concerning to every citizen.
The contract obligates contractors of migrant shelters to hand out voter registration cards, help migrants to register to vote, and circulate campaign materials within the shelter premises, according to Malliotakis. She also took to Twitter to express her concerns, sharing that such a scheme could potentially allow tens of thousands of migrants to vote in the city’s elections, and stated that her office was working to halt such an arrangement.
Malliotakis emphasized that there is nothing more important than preserving the integrity of the election system. She believes that the law only allows United States citizens to vote, and not those who crossed the border illegally and made their way to New York City. Concerns are also being raised about the city requiring contractors to distribute voter registration forms while prohibiting them from asking a person’s citizenship status.
However, officials from NYC’s Department of Social Services have denied these claims, asserting that the contract section pertains only to U.S. citizens who are eligible, within shelter housing. They strongly urged against giving any validity to these accusations as they continue to provide essential case-management services for asylum seekers in order to help them move out of the shelters.
This revelation came after a New York State judge overruled a 2021 City Council statute that allowed noncitizen residents to vote in municipal elections. Malliotakis was one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit leading to this legal decision, and the city has appealed against this ruling alongside migrants’ rights groups.
It is clear that Malliotakis is steadfast in her pursuit of safeguarding the integrity of the election system and preventing noncitizens from voting in the city’s elections. She underlined the importance of exercising the right to vote as a sacred privilege given to U.S. citizens. The ongoing legal proceedings and apparent controversies surrounding migrant voter registration ensure that this issue remains crucial and highly contentious. There would be no more significant task than to ensure that this critical democratic process is preserved and operated within the boundaries of the law and democratic rights. This appears to be increasingly relevant in this situation.
