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NICK'S VIEW - The Los Angeles City Council has a history of considering, and even adopting, outrageous laws. such as it did in making it illegal to chase moths under city streetlights or riding your bike in the swimming pool. But the most absurd thing proposed is to give noncitizens the right to vote.
Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez wants to place a measure on the Nov. 3 ballot giving the council the power to let noncitizens vote in LA’s local elections. He argues that his parents immigrated from Mexico and for decades they had no say in the decisions shaping their community until they became citizens.
Angelica Salas, Executive Director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, stated to the Los Angeles Times that her organization supports the proposal. She emphasized that numerous Angelenos—including green card holders, DACA recipients, and others—are experiencing taxation without representation.
The Preamble to the United States Constitution begins with the phrase “We the People.” This term refers not to all individuals residing within the country, but specifically to the legally recognized citizenry forming the political community. It is this community that possesses supreme authority under the law. Citizens owe allegiance to the country; noncitizens have not formally sworn that allegiance.
The gateway to citizenship and the right to vote is naturalization. When Soto-Martinez’s parents became citizens, they had a say in decisions shaping their community. Voting is not a consumer right.
Noncitizens who work legally and earn enough credits qualify for national benefits like Social Security, just as citizens do. Paying taxes is not considered proof of allegiance in the American system. Citizenship is a political status, not a demographic one. Voting is the exercise of sovereignty and allegiance is the prerequisite.
I have personal knowledge of what is in the mind of most immigrants, they are eager to obtain citizenship and the right to vote. But not all immigrants think like that. Many never assimilate and never learn English. If they had the right to vote, chances are they could become captives of populists and demagogues who speak their language.
This is not an unusual circumstance. I knew that Information is processed with the mother tongue, and an emotional feeling of trustworthiness develops. Consequently, a persuasive tool is created because a clan connection is made.
It is my opinion that a noncitizen voter can be influenced by media from their home country, ethnic social networks, and cultural identity appeals, especially if they trust voices from their cultural community and they don`t speak English. Today, of course, noncitizens cannot vote in federal or state elections. A few cities have allowed noncitizens to vote in local elections. Certainly, the pressure to seek broader rights for noncitizen voters will escalate, and it must be opposed.
Soto-Martínez is not the only candidate in the upcoming city election who supports the idea. Deputy Attorney General Marissa Roy, aiming to replace City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto, stated to the Democratic Socialists of America last year that she backs granting noncitizens the right to vote in Los Angeles local elections.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez supports the idea. In the South LA council race, candidates Estuardo Mazariegos, Jose Ugarte, and Elmer Roldan also back it.
Can you imagine an LA overseen by non-assimilated ethnic council members who represent the interest of their national and cultural groups and not the endeavors of the city as a whole? The cohesiveness of the city will be a memory. With certainty, malaise will rule the day.
It does not have to be this way. The system here for noncitizens has a clear incentive—naturalization. The naturalization oath requires allegiance to the Constitution, renouncing foreign ties, and joining the American political community. The right to vote is legitimately granted.
For this reason, noncitizens are motivated to gain citizenship in order to secure voting rights and formally become an integral part of America’s political community. Voting by noncitizens becomes a disincentive to naturalization.
And it is this system’s core logic that must not be contradicted.
Between the 1700s and early 1900s, over twenty states and territories permitted noncitizens to vote, due to frontier settlement and land-based politics. By the 1920s, every state abolished it.
Today, any action that allows political power to be exercised by people who have not sworn allegiance is irrational. It disrupts rights and duties. It contradicts both law and tradition.
I speak on the noncitizen issue from personal experience. I came from Greece in 1961, learned English, graduated at California State University, Northridge with a degree in electrical engineering.
In 1974, I became a U.S. citizen, very proud of both my American identity and my heritage. I had an early exposure to politics, inspired by Pericles' view on civic engagement (“We alone regard a man who takes no interest in public affairs, not as a harmless, but as a useless character, and if few of us are originators, we are all sound judges of policy”). This led me to serve on major LA Commissions and run for mayor in 1993.
Only those fully bound to the nation’s laws and fully subject to its long‑term consequences should shape the political direction of the nation, the state, and the city. Only those who have sworn allegiance. Citizenship should mean something, and the right to vote is a big part of it. An immigrant`s decision to become a citizen is a critical acceptance of duties as well as privileges.
Keep the noncitizen out of the voting booth.
(Nick Patsaouras is an electrical engineer, civic leader, and a longtime public advocate. He ran for Mayor in 1993 with a focus on rebuilding L.A. through transportation after the 1992 civil unrest. He has served on major public boards, including the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Metro, and the Board of Zoning Appeals, helping guide infrastructure and planning policy in Los Angeles. He is the author of the book "The Making of Modern Los Angeles.")
