Showing posts with label CITIZENSHIP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CITIZENSHIP. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 02, 2026
Tuesday, September 01, 2026
Friday, August 28, 2026
Friday, August 14, 2026
Woman Who Has Been in US Since 1989 and Cannot Speak English Holds Press Conference Demanding Citizenship...
Woman Who Has Been in US Since 1989 and Cannot Speak a Lick of English Holds Press Conference Demanding Citizenship – Dan Bovino Weighs In
Margarita Cielo Balbuena cannot speak a lick of English after living in US for 37 years. Demands citizenship!
Margarita Cielo Balbuena is a woman who has been in the U.S. since 1989 and cannot speak a WORD of English.
That’s 37 years!
This week Margarita stood with leftist leaders and demanded amnesty at a Democrat presser about Delaney Hall:
Margarita says (in Spanish): “We need a path to citizenship for those of us that have been present at least 7 years in this country.”
Margarita does not love this country. She hasn’t even learned our language.
No thanks. Go home!
Via Breitbart.
Retired Border Patrol Commander at Large, Dan Bovino weighed in on Margarita’s plight.
Thank you Margarita Cielo Balbuena.
You have lived in the United States since 1989. That is 37 years. You still need a translator.
Margarita Cielo Balbuena is a woman who has been in the U.S. since 1989 and cannot speak a WORD of English.
That’s 37 years!
This week Margarita stood with leftist leaders and demanded amnesty at a Democrat presser about Delaney Hall:
Margarita says (in Spanish): “We need a path to citizenship for those of us that have been present at least 7 years in this country.”
Margarita does not love this country. She hasn’t even learned our language.
No thanks. Go home!
Via Breitbart.
Retired Border Patrol Commander at Large, Dan Bovino weighed in on Margarita’s plight.
Thank you Margarita Cielo Balbuena.
You have lived in the United States since 1989. That is 37 years. You still need a translator.
Thursday, July 30, 2026
The Vindicator explains: How 6,600 noncitizens were registered to vote in New Jersey
By Krystal Knapp July 26, 2026
About 400 later cast ballots. Here is what we know about the voter-registration failure, what the state and its contractor disagree about, and the questions that still need to be answered.
Governor Mikie Sherrill, Lt. Governor Dale Caldwell and MVC Acting Chair & Chief Administrator Rosalie Johnson hold a press conference announcing that New Jersey’s Motor Vehicle System led to voter registration of roughly 6,600 people, who indicated that they were not U.S. citizens, between June 2023 and June 2024, while in the media room of the statehouse in Trenton, N.J. on Tuesday, July 21, 2026. Photo: Tim Larsen, Office of the Governor.
New Jersey officials have acknowledged a breakdown in the state’s voter-registration system: About 6,600 people who identified themselves as noncitizens while obtaining driver’s licenses or identification cards were nevertheless registered to vote.
Roughly 400 of them later cast ballots, according to a preliminary state review.
Gov. Mikie Sherrill has blamed a software error involving IDEMIA, a longtime Motor Vehicle Commission contractor. But the company says its system accurately recorded the information it received and that state officials had access to records showing the applicants were not citizens.
The failure occurred between June 2023 and June 2024, during former Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration. Although the process was corrected in June 2024, the public was not told about it until Sherrill disclosed it on July 21, 2026.
That leaves several major questions unresolved: Was this primarily a software failure, a poorly designed state process, a failure by election officials to review the information they received, or some combination of all three? Who knew about the problem, and when? And why weren’t the approximately 6,600 registrations reviewed and removed after the system was fixed?
Here is what we know and what we don’t know yet.
New Jersey officials have acknowledged a breakdown in the state’s voter-registration system: About 6,600 people who identified themselves as noncitizens while obtaining driver’s licenses or identification cards were nevertheless registered to vote.
Roughly 400 of them later cast ballots, according to a preliminary state review.
Gov. Mikie Sherrill has blamed a software error involving IDEMIA, a longtime Motor Vehicle Commission contractor. But the company says its system accurately recorded the information it received and that state officials had access to records showing the applicants were not citizens.
The failure occurred between June 2023 and June 2024, during former Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration. Although the process was corrected in June 2024, the public was not told about it until Sherrill disclosed it on July 21, 2026.
That leaves several major questions unresolved: Was this primarily a software failure, a poorly designed state process, a failure by election officials to review the information they received, or some combination of all three? Who knew about the problem, and when? And why weren’t the approximately 6,600 registrations reviewed and removed after the system was fixed?
Here is what we know and what we don’t know yet.
First, who is allowed to vote in New Jersey?
To register to vote in New Jersey, a person must be a U.S. citizen, a resident of the county where they are registering for at least 30 days before the election, and at least 17 years old, although they cannot vote until they turn 18.
Noncitizens are prohibited from voting in federal and New Jersey elections. That includes people who are in the country legally, such as permanent residents with green cards, as well as people who are undocumented.
Noncitizens can legally obtain New Jersey driver’s licenses. Having a driver’s license does not make someone eligible to vote.
What happened?
Between June 2023 and June 2024, approximately 6,600 people were registered to vote through the Motor Vehicle Commission even though they indicated that they were not U.S. citizens.
The registrations occurred when people applied for or renewed driver’s licenses or state identification cards.
The applicants answered “no” when asked whether they were U.S. citizens, according to both the state and IDEMIA. But the system still asked whether they wanted to register to vote. IDEMIA says they answered “yes,” and their information was then transmitted for voter registration.
The state says the problem was corrected in June 2024. But officials apparently did not then identify and remove everyone who had already been improperly registered, and the public was not told about the failure until Sherrill disclosed it more than two years later.
Did the 6,600 people intentionally register?
That is disputed or, at a minimum, more complicated than the state initially disclosed.
Monday, July 27, 2026
Noncitizens CAUGHT: 6,600 registered to vote in New Jersey after error
Noncitizens CAUGHT: 6,600 registered to vote in New Jersey after error
The National Desk
Jul 21, 2026
An estimated 6,600 individuals who indicated they were noncitizens while obtaining identification documents were improperly registered to vote in New Jersey, Gov. Mikie Sherrill said on Tuesday.
https://thenationaldesk.com/news/amer...
Monday, June 22, 2026
Judge blocks use of federal database to check citizenship, saying it could wrongly purge voters
The decision is a major legal setback for President Donald Trump in his efforts to use federal agencies to encourage a nationwide crackdown on noncitizens illegally on state voter rolls.
PUBLISHED: June 22, 2026 at 1:45 PM PDT | UPDATED: June 22, 2026 at 2:02 PM PDT
By ALI SWENSON and FATIMA HUSSEIN
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Monday ruled that a recently revamped version of a federal tool central to the Trump administration’s election integrity strategy is unlawful and can no longer be used.
U.S. District Court Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan sided with advocacy groups that argued the recent upgrades to the program, called Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, aggregated Americans’ sensitive personal data in a way that could result in voters being wrongly purged from voter rolls.
“All in all, the federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote,” Sooknanan said in an order explaining the decision. “This Court cannot stand idly by while that happens.”
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House during an executive order signing about quantum computing, Monday, June 22, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
PUBLISHED: June 22, 2026 at 1:45 PM PDT | UPDATED: June 22, 2026 at 2:02 PM PDT
By ALI SWENSON and FATIMA HUSSEIN
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Monday ruled that a recently revamped version of a federal tool central to the Trump administration’s election integrity strategy is unlawful and can no longer be used.
U.S. District Court Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan sided with advocacy groups that argued the recent upgrades to the program, called Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, aggregated Americans’ sensitive personal data in a way that could result in voters being wrongly purged from voter rolls.
“All in all, the federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote,” Sooknanan said in an order explaining the decision. “This Court cannot stand idly by while that happens.”
Sunday, June 07, 2026
Former head of Iowa school district sentenced to 2 years for falsely claiming to be a US citizen
This photo provided by WOI Local 5 News in September 2025 shows Des Moines schools Superintendent Ian Roberts. (WOI Local 5 News via AP, File)
By HANNAH FINGERHUT
Updated 3:41 PM EDT, May 29, 2026
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The former superintendent of Iowa’s largest school district who was arrested last year in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown was sentenced Friday to two years in prison.
Attorneys for Ian Roberts said they expect he will likely to be deported to his native Guyana in South America once he serves the sentence. He pleaded guilty in January to falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen and illegally possessing firearms.
Prosecutors alleged Roberts knowingly lacked employment authorization for nearly all of his two-decade career in urban education and submitted a counterfeit Social Security card when he was hired to lead the Des Moines public school district, which serves 30,000 students.
His September arrest outraged and stunned the Des Moines community as President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign was escalating in cities across the country. Roberts was subject to a final removal order issued in 2024.
Roberts, who appeared in the courtroom Friday with his wrists and feet cuffed, spoke to U.S. District Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger for nearly a half hour. He pleaded for leniency as he acknowledged that his dedication to teaching thousands of children and his achievements did not “excuse my poor choice, my ethical lapse,” and he said he knew he had disappointed many people, including children.
Roberts wiped away tears as he described a letter he received from a Des Moines second grader.
Sunday, May 24, 2026
Thursday, April 02, 2026
Thursday, March 19, 2026
Boston City Council to weigh non-citizen voting
A new home-rule petition would allow non-citizens with "legal status" to vote in municipal elections in Boston.
Councilor Julia Mejia.
March 19, 2026 | 11:06 AM
A number of Boston City Council members are showing support for a measure that would allow immigrants with “legal status” to vote in municipal elections.
Councilor Julia Mejia introduced a home-rule petition Wednesday, framing it as an extension of the progressive legacy laid out by former councilor Kendra Lara and others. Lara was the driving force behind a similar effort in 2023.
That year, the City Council approved a home-rule petition with very similar language in an 8-4 vote. It moved on to Beacon Hill and eventually stalled there. Mejia described the State House as a place “where everything goes to die” when speaking about the new home-rule petition Wednesday.
But now, in the context of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign and an explosion in anti-immigrant rhetoric, Mejia said that the time has come to try again.
“We’re back again, because the urgency of this issue has only grown. At a time when immigrant communities are facing increasing attacks, harmful rhetoric, and fear, we have a responsibility at the local level to respond,” she said.
Councilors Liz Breadon, Miniard Culpepper, Ruthzee Louijeune, Enrique Pepén, Henry Santana, Ben Weber, and Brian Worrell all signed on to Mejia’s petition, indicating their support. It was referred to the Committee on Government Operations and will be the subject of a future hearing.
Non-citizen immigrants with “legal status” make up more than 28% of Boston’s population, according to Mejia’s petition. They pay an average of $2.3 billion a year in taxes.
A number of Boston City Council members are showing support for a measure that would allow immigrants with “legal status” to vote in municipal elections.
Councilor Julia Mejia introduced a home-rule petition Wednesday, framing it as an extension of the progressive legacy laid out by former councilor Kendra Lara and others. Lara was the driving force behind a similar effort in 2023.
That year, the City Council approved a home-rule petition with very similar language in an 8-4 vote. It moved on to Beacon Hill and eventually stalled there. Mejia described the State House as a place “where everything goes to die” when speaking about the new home-rule petition Wednesday.
But now, in the context of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign and an explosion in anti-immigrant rhetoric, Mejia said that the time has come to try again.
“We’re back again, because the urgency of this issue has only grown. At a time when immigrant communities are facing increasing attacks, harmful rhetoric, and fear, we have a responsibility at the local level to respond,” she said.
Councilors Liz Breadon, Miniard Culpepper, Ruthzee Louijeune, Enrique Pepén, Henry Santana, Ben Weber, and Brian Worrell all signed on to Mejia’s petition, indicating their support. It was referred to the Committee on Government Operations and will be the subject of a future hearing.
Non-citizen immigrants with “legal status” make up more than 28% of Boston’s population, according to Mejia’s petition. They pay an average of $2.3 billion a year in taxes.
Thursday, February 12, 2026
Trump administration working to expand effort to strip citizenship from foreign-born Americans
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials focused on denaturalization were sent to offices nationwide, sources say.
A new citizen holds an American flag during a naturalization ceremony in Metheun, Mass., in 2024.David L. Ryan / Boston Globe via Getty Images
Feb. 12, 2026, 5:00 AM EST
By Colleen Long, Laura Strickler, Daniella Silva and Nicole Acevedo
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is dramatically expanding an effort to revoke U.S. citizenship for foreign-born Americans as it works to curb immigration, according to two people familiar with the plans.
Over the past several months, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency within the Department of Homeland Security that’s responsible for legal immigration, has been sending experts to its offices around the country or reassigning staff members to focus on whether some citizens processed through those offices could now be denaturalized, these people said.
The goal of emphasizing naturalized citizens is to supply the office of immigration litigation with 100 to 200 possible cases per month, one of the people familiar with the plans said. Such cases have typically been very rare, involving people who concealed criminal histories or previous human rights violations during their application processes. The New York Times first reported the quota.
By comparison, throughout the four years of President Donald Trump’s first term, the administration formally filed a total of 102 such cases, according to the Justice Department.
The effort is part of the overall push by Homeland Security to drastically curtail immigration and deliver on Trump’s policy agenda. The push has included DHS’ sending scores of immigration enforcement officers into U.S. cities on deportation missions and purchasing mega warehouses to hold detainees.
DHS has also increasingly sought to remove legal immigrants from the U.S. by revoking thousands of visas, including for some people who participated in pro-Palestinian protests, and trying to deport green card holders.
Feb. 12, 2026, 5:00 AM EST
By Colleen Long, Laura Strickler, Daniella Silva and Nicole Acevedo
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is dramatically expanding an effort to revoke U.S. citizenship for foreign-born Americans as it works to curb immigration, according to two people familiar with the plans.
Over the past several months, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency within the Department of Homeland Security that’s responsible for legal immigration, has been sending experts to its offices around the country or reassigning staff members to focus on whether some citizens processed through those offices could now be denaturalized, these people said.
The goal of emphasizing naturalized citizens is to supply the office of immigration litigation with 100 to 200 possible cases per month, one of the people familiar with the plans said. Such cases have typically been very rare, involving people who concealed criminal histories or previous human rights violations during their application processes. The New York Times first reported the quota.
By comparison, throughout the four years of President Donald Trump’s first term, the administration formally filed a total of 102 such cases, according to the Justice Department.
The effort is part of the overall push by Homeland Security to drastically curtail immigration and deliver on Trump’s policy agenda. The push has included DHS’ sending scores of immigration enforcement officers into U.S. cities on deportation missions and purchasing mega warehouses to hold detainees.
DHS has also increasingly sought to remove legal immigrants from the U.S. by revoking thousands of visas, including for some people who participated in pro-Palestinian protests, and trying to deport green card holders.
Wednesday, February 11, 2026
House GOP pushes strict proof-of-citizenship requirement for voters ahead of midterm elections
Wednesday, February 11, 2026 7:16PM
Watch ABC News live news stream and get 24/7 latest, breaking news coverage, and live video.
WASHINGTON -- House Republicans rushed to approve legislation on Wednesday that would impose strict new proof-of-citizenship requirements ahead of the midterm elections, a long shot Trump administration priority that faces sharp blowback in the Senate.
The bill, called the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE America Act, would require Americans to prove they are citizens when they register to vote, mostly through a valid U.S. passport or birth certificate. It would also require a valid photo identification before voters can cast ballots, which some states already demand. It was approved on a mostly party-line vote, 218-213.
Republicans said the legislation is needed to prevent voter fraud, but Democrats warn it will disenfranchise millions of Americans by making it harder to vote. Federal law already requires that voters in national elections be U.S. citizens, but there's no requirement to provide documentary proof. Experts said voter fraud is extremely rare, and very few noncitizens ever slip through the cracks. Fewer than one in 10 Americans don't have paperwork proving they are citizens.
"Some of my colleagues will call this voter suppression or Jim Crow 2.0," said Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., presenting the package at a committee hearing.
But he said "those allegations are false," and he argued the bill is needed to enforce existing laws, particularly those that bar immigrants who are not citizens from voting. "The current law is not strong enough," he said.
Monday, February 09, 2026
Friday, November 07, 2025
Friday, June 27, 2025
Immigrants and children of immigrants make up at least 15% of 119th Congress
FEBRUARY 27, 2025
Immigrants and children of immigrants make up at least 15% of 119th Congress
BYJANAKEE CHAVDA
From left: New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim, the son of Korean immigrants; Arizona Rep. Yassamin Ansari, the daughter of Iranian immigrants; Arizona Rep. Abe Hamadeh, the son of Syrian immigrants; California Rep. Luz Rivas, the daughter of Mexican immigrants; and Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno, a Colombian immigrant. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images; Andrew Harnik/Getty Images; Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
Immigrants and children of immigrants make up at least 15% of the current U.S. Congress, according to a Pew Research Center analysis. This share has not changed from the last Congress, making it the first time in the past four Congresses that there has not been an increase in the share or number of immigrants and children of immigrants.
In total, at least 80 lawmakers are foreign born or have at least one parent who was born in another country, including 61 in the House and 19 in the Senate. Our count uses voting members’ biographical information from the Congressional Research Service, news articles, congressional offices and other sources as of Jan. 3, 2025, the first day of the new Congress.How we did this
The number of foreign-born lawmakers in Congress has increased to 19, with two in the Senate and 17 in the House. The share of immigrants in Congress (4%) remains lower than historical highs, and it’s lower than immigrants’ share of the U.S. population overall (15.4% in 2024).
Children of immigrants account for at least 61 lawmakers – 44 in the House and 17 in the Senate. This is down from at least 63 in the 118th Congress. It’s the first time the number of children of immigrants in Congress has decreased since the Center began tracking this information for the 115th Congress. Lawmakers who have at least one immigrant parent currently make up about 11% of all voting members.
Of the voting members of Congress who are immigrants or children of immigrants, Democrats (60) outnumber Republicans (19), continuing recent trends. One is an independent: Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
In this Congress, 11 newly elected members are foreign born or have an immigrant parent. Democrat Andy Kim of New Jersey is the first Korean American senator, and Arizona Rep. Yassamin Ansari is the first Iranian Democrat to serve in the House. Arizona Rep. Abraham Hamadeh, the son of Syrian immigrants, and Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno, a Colombian immigrant, are the only Republicans in this group.
Immigrants and children of immigrants trace their roots to 37 places around the world. The most common place of origin is Mexico: 19 members have family heritage there. Seven trace their roots to Cuba, six to India and five to Germany.
Immigrants and children of immigrants make up at least 15% of 119th Congress
BYJANAKEE CHAVDA
From left: New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim, the son of Korean immigrants; Arizona Rep. Yassamin Ansari, the daughter of Iranian immigrants; Arizona Rep. Abe Hamadeh, the son of Syrian immigrants; California Rep. Luz Rivas, the daughter of Mexican immigrants; and Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno, a Colombian immigrant. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images; Andrew Harnik/Getty Images; Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
Immigrants and children of immigrants make up at least 15% of the current U.S. Congress, according to a Pew Research Center analysis. This share has not changed from the last Congress, making it the first time in the past four Congresses that there has not been an increase in the share or number of immigrants and children of immigrants.
In total, at least 80 lawmakers are foreign born or have at least one parent who was born in another country, including 61 in the House and 19 in the Senate. Our count uses voting members’ biographical information from the Congressional Research Service, news articles, congressional offices and other sources as of Jan. 3, 2025, the first day of the new Congress.How we did this
The number of foreign-born lawmakers in Congress has increased to 19, with two in the Senate and 17 in the House. The share of immigrants in Congress (4%) remains lower than historical highs, and it’s lower than immigrants’ share of the U.S. population overall (15.4% in 2024).
Children of immigrants account for at least 61 lawmakers – 44 in the House and 17 in the Senate. This is down from at least 63 in the 118th Congress. It’s the first time the number of children of immigrants in Congress has decreased since the Center began tracking this information for the 115th Congress. Lawmakers who have at least one immigrant parent currently make up about 11% of all voting members.
Of the voting members of Congress who are immigrants or children of immigrants, Democrats (60) outnumber Republicans (19), continuing recent trends. One is an independent: Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
In this Congress, 11 newly elected members are foreign born or have an immigrant parent. Democrat Andy Kim of New Jersey is the first Korean American senator, and Arizona Rep. Yassamin Ansari is the first Iranian Democrat to serve in the House. Arizona Rep. Abraham Hamadeh, the son of Syrian immigrants, and Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno, a Colombian immigrant, are the only Republicans in this group.
Immigrants and children of immigrants trace their roots to 37 places around the world. The most common place of origin is Mexico: 19 members have family heritage there. Seven trace their roots to Cuba, six to India and five to Germany.
Sunday, February 02, 2025
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Wednesday, October 30, 2024
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