Unless you want your identity to be stolen, never share your personal information to anyone, especially not your Social Security Number. But what should you do when, as a non-citizen, the government wants to seize all your sensitive information? In response to the redaction of 17 Orange County, California non-citizen registrants’ sensitive information, such as their Social Security and driver’s license numbers, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit against Robert Page, the Orange County Registrar of Voters. The DOJ’s lawsuit claims that “Orange County has undermined that [voting] confidence by (1) refusing transparency of its voter information, in violation of federal voting laws, and (2) concealing the unlawful registration of ineligible, non-citizen voters.” In seeming contradiction, the county has provided the non-citizen voters’ names and addresses, removed them from the voting polls, and reached out for lawful cooperation before being sued. As state Assemblymember Avelino Valencia asserts, the “lawsuit is an unnecessary escalation that misrepresents what actually happened… [and] does not strengthen transparency, it undermines trust.” Indeed, the lawsuit’s discrepancies raise questions about the DOJ’s intentions, if not to further rattle Orange County’s non-citizen population.
Nonetheless, Republican Supervisors Don Wagner and Janet Nguyen urged their board to hand over the registrants’ personal information to the DOJ. Concerned about provoking the federal government, Wagner reasoned that “We should not litigate a case like this if we have nothing to hide.” However, the Democrat board members argued that without a warrant or confidentiality agreement, they would be violating state election law. This still suggests that the Democrat board members are willing to release non-citizens’ sensitive information if they receive a warrant or confidentiality agreement. Instead of standing up for their non-citizen constituents, Orange County’s politicians yielded to compromises that reinforce xenophobic policies and non-citizen disenfranchisement.
As has been emphasized by the DOJ, non-citizens are ineligible to vote in federal, state, and most local elections. However, historically the United States did not uphold non-citizen disenfranchisement. With hopes of attracting migrants to America, non-citizens were allowed to vote and hold public office positions in the United States until the 1920s. Of course, there were exceptions, with non-citizen suffrage being extended exclusively to European migrants, who were deemed culturally assimilable. In a response to rising xenophobia and nativism during World War I, states began to ban non-citizen suffrage. Following an influx of Mexican migrants to the United States, Congress officially criminalized non-citizen suffrage in 1996 with the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act. These policies against non-citizen suffrage have always been rooted in hostile immigrant sentiment, despite the reality that immigrants have built the nation.
Orange County is no exception to these historical injustices. Since the mid-19th century, Orange County has been powered by mostly Latino and Asian immigrants. In fact, in the early 20th century, the California Fruit Growers Exchange lobbied for an open border policy to meet agricultural labor needs. Additionally, it is commonly understood that Orange County was named after its citrus industry, but the Chinese and Mexican immigrants who worked those very citrus groves are often overlooked. Chinese immigrants also toiled in the Anaheim grape vineyards and extended the Southern Pacific Railroad line from Los Angeles to Anaheim and Santa Ana. It is because of these severely underpaid immigrant laborers that Orange County has become what it is today.
But, despite their contributions to Orange County, immigrants have faced violent pushback to their presence. For example, in 1893, a dozen white men fearing job displacement set ablaze Chinese farmworkers’ shacks. In 1906, Santa Ana’s fire department exhibited a gruesome show of burning down Chinatown to more than 1,000 locals. During the 1936 Citrus Strike, exploited Mexican citrus harvesters seeking improved pay and working conditions were violently suppressed by law enforcement. Though fights emerged on both sides, deputies were ordered to “Shoot to Kill” by Orange County Sheriff Logan Jackson. Bloody attacks continued to rage on, such as white vigilante groups attacking strikers with tear gas bombs and clubs. These haunting events are tragically only a few of many, but nonetheless demonstrate how immigrants have continued to build Orange County in the face of anti-immigrant antagonism. Even so, non-citizens still lack the ability to vote in all forms of elections.
Today, a select few municipalities have allowed non-citizen suffrage in either local or school board elections. In 2016, San Francisco passed Proposition N, which allowed non-citizens to vote in the San Francisco Board of Education’s elections. This permitted tens of thousands of parents to vote, as one in three students had immigrant parents. While non-citizen voting was legalized in school board elections, voter turnout has been very low, with only two people voting in 2019. Although Proposition N sends the message of a more unified community, especially in directly connecting parents to their children’s education, many non-citizen parents face barriers when it comes to voting. For example, San Francisco’s Board of Education warns that information provided could be obtained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, agencies, organizations, and even individuals. Furthermore, some non-citizens fear that voting in school board elections could interfere with the naturalization process, and many are simply unaware that they are able to vote in San Francisco’s school board elections.
If voters were able to overcome these barriers, there are certainly benefits to allowing non-citizens to vote in local or school board elections. Local governments, for example, function to provide public goods to their community, such as schools, parks, and other infrastructure. But because non-citizens are ineligible to vote even in local elections, public goods are not properly catered to the actual community. By allowing non-citizen suffrage in local elections, local governments can improve their ability to provide public goods according to their community’s preferences. One common concern is that undocumented immigrants leech off of citizens’ tax-payer money. In fact, this purported issue of “free-riders” has been debunked, with a study from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy suggesting that, nationwide, undocumented residents paid an effective tax rate of eight percent while the top one percent of taxpayers paid 5.4%. Even for school board elections, allowing non-citizens to participate by voting would increase educational achievement by adjusting school policies to their children’s needs and promoting parental autonomy over their children’s education.
As for Orange County itself, a recent UCI-OC poll found that 89 percent of residents desired immigration reforms and 61 percent were in favor of providing undocumented immigrants an opportunity to apply for legal status. For the most part, Orange County residents want to see changes in the immigration system. And considering the large population of non-citizens in Orange County– who number roughly 400,000– it is not absurd to say that a significant portion of the county lacks formal political power. Of course, it is notable that 28 percent of residents believe that undocumented immigrants should be deported to their original countries. While there may be an overall desire for progress, some people maintain xenophobic sentiment. If the administration, DOJ, and even the county’s political authorities resist progressive change for non-citizens, much of the county’s community will continue to be excluded.
Growing up in Orange County, a majority of my friends and family members were immigrants from Mexico and Vietnam. It was not uncommon to hear youth joking about themselves or their families being deported or locked up. Though appearing as banter, a plaguing anxiety of having an undocumented status has embedded itself into Orange County’s sociopolitical and cultural frameworks. Some argue that undocumented immigrants should “go back to where they came from,” but many of the immigrants I knew actually stayed in California for the majority of their lives. Whether it be financial restrictions, fear of deportation, or worries of a compromised naturalization process, undocumented immigrants often lack the ability to visit their home countries. Nonetheless, undocumented immigrants in Orange County have been able to create vibrant, multi-cultural spaces that they call home, many of which Orange County citizens enjoy the benefits of. After all, who doesn’t love a steaming bowl of phở or late-night street tacos?
America freed itself from Britain by demanding “No taxation without representation,” but it seems that rhetoric only applies to white colonists. If we deny the basic rights of non-citizens, we deny the fundamental principles on which our country stands.
Featured Image Source: Steve Rhodes on Flickr
