Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) yesterday introduced a bill in the lower chamber to ensure illegal aliens don’t vote in federal elections.
The bill has the support of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who promised a vote on such a bill during an appearance with former President Donald Trump weeks ago.
Although noncitizen voting in federal elections is already unlawful, past Supreme Court decisions limit state’s power to ensure that voters are citizens. Roy’s bill, dubbed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, seeks to change that.
It requires that states obtain documentary proof of citizenship in order to register voters.
States would be required to “take affirmative steps on an ongoing basis to ensure that only United States citizens are registered to vote.”
The same bill will be introduced to the Senate by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who encouraged that it be taken up and passed.
“Thousands of illegal immigrants are being given voter registration forms and driver’s licenses, allowing them to cast illegitimate ballots on election day,” Lee told The Epoch Times.
“We must stop foreign election interference and pass the SAVE Act.”
Explaining why Republicans are pursuing the bill, Johnson noted that as many as 16 million illegal aliens could have entered the country under President Joe Biden. Estimates of the exact number vary widely.
Johnson called this “a threat to election integrity” under current law, tying his concerns primarily to a law which allows people to register to vote at the DMV by simply claiming to be citizens.
According to the Supreme Court, that law outright prohibits states from imposing any stricter proof of citizenship requirements on would-be voters.
With so many illegal aliens already in the country, Johnson noted that if just one out of every 100 voted, potentially hundreds of thousands of illegal ballots could be cast.
“That could turn an election,” Johnson warned.
Critics of the bill have retorted that federal law already prohibits illegal aliens from voting.
However, existing laws include no solid mechanism for states to ensure that their voters are citizens.
It’s unclear when the bill will be taken up in the lower chamber.
With Republicans’ slim majority, the bill has good odds of passing the House; it faces longer odds in the Senate, where Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) decides what comes to the floor.
—Joseph Lord
ARE COLLEGE PROTESTS BECOMING ‘BIDEN’S VIETNAM’?
Some Democrats are concerned that the college protests may jeopardize Biden’s chances of winning a second term. And there is an ongoing division within the Democratic Party over how to handle these demonstrations.
Some warn that the turmoil of the Vietnam War era may flare up again.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) recently likened the college protests to those in 1968.
“This may be Biden’s Vietnam,” Sanders told CNN on May 2.
He said that Biden’s support for Israel could potentially sink his presidency, much like how the Vietnam War brought down Lyndon Johnson’s presidency.
The current crisis bears some similarities to the Vietnam War era, as both involve protests and division within the Democratic Party. However, many argue that there are significant differences between the two situations.
“In the 1960s, much of the opposition around the country was based upon the draft. It was based upon so many American soldiers going over to Vietnam. This is not the case in the Middle East at this point,” historian David Pietrusza says.
As in 1968, the Democratic Party will convene in Chicago this August to select its presidential nominee. Some Democrats are anxious that the violent events of more than five decades ago could be repeated in 2024.
In 1968, Vice President Hubert Humphrey received the presidential nomination, amid riots and violence on Chicago’s streets. But he lost the White House race to Republican nominee Richard Nixon. Some attributed this defeat to voters’ frustration with Democrats for their perceived inaction in restoring law and order.
Given these historical parallels, many believe Biden is currently attempting to thread a needle on current protests, aiming to retain the right to free expression while reminding students that America is not a lawless country.
Following weeks of pressure from critics, Biden made a strong statement on May 7 about the “ferocious surge” in anti-Semitism on college campuses and beyond. Hatred of Jews “continues to lie deep in the hearts of too many people,” he said during a Holocaust remembrance speech.
“It’s absolutely despicable, and it must stop,” he said.
Republicans see the protests gripping U.S. college campuses as a winning election issue for them. They are broadly in agreement on the war and exhibit strong support for Israel. They’ve called for Biden to send in the National Guard to end chaos on campuses.
David Carlucci, a Democratic strategist, criticizes Republicans for attempting to make the protests appear as if the country is in chaos.
“The truth is, President Biden’s response to these protests has been nothing but strict,” he said.
“I do not see these protests as a political liability for him.”
“He may lose support from far-left young voters due to his support for Israel, but these voters will not go to Donald Trump,” he added.
According to recent polls, young voters, a critical pillar of the Democratic Party’s base, appear to be turning toward Trump. A recent CNN poll found that Biden is 11 percentage points behind Trump among young voters aged 18 to 34 in a head-to-head match.
—Emel Akan
NO SUMMER BREAK FROM PROTESTS
As campuses are emptied of students on summer break, there will be no vacation from protests. In fact, demonstrations, and disruptions are going to intensify, CUNY law professor Jeffrey Lax tells The Epoch Times in a May 7 interview.
Campuses may no longer be the epicenter of upheaval over Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, but it’s going to be long, hot summer in many cities across the country, he says.
“I think it’s gaining momentum,” Lax said. “I don’t know where the next thing will be, or even what the next thing will be, but I think it’s going to continue to gain steam over the summer.”
What are largely peaceful obstructions, acts of civil disobedience designed to discomfort the general public are likely to morph into criminal seizures of bridges, roads, buildings, and public spaces, he said.
“This is definitely going to continue but it may change. You may end up with an ‘Occupy Wall Street’ type thing. Who knows? I mean, they may occupy other government buildings, who knows?”
Lax said one reason why protests will intensify while moving off campuses is because they aren’t being led by students in the first place, claiming faculty unions, long led by overt Marxists, he says, have formed a coalition with Islamists to orchestrate students,
“I’ve seen no evidence of that whatsoever,” American Association of University Professors (AAUP) spokesperson Kelly. Benjamin told The Epoch Times.
Benjamin said AAUP has 500 chapters on campuses across 39 states. “It’s sort of an interesting amalgamation of faculty unions with chapters on campuses and some of them are more advocacy-oriented than others” but there is no concerted effort by AAUP members to spur students to protest.
“We’re very much concerned about what’s happening on college campuses and the way the protests have been handled,” he said. “We have a number of statements, not just [regarding] this particular specific round of protests, but around the issue in general when it comes to academic freedom and when it comes to extramural speech, which we defend. It’s part of our core academic principles.”
Lax said protesters will be taking that “extramural speech” to the streets this summer.
“They’re going to continue to cause havoc and damage because that’s what they mean to do, that’s what these protests are meant to do—shut down American infrastructure,” he said. “They want this country to defund the military and the CIA and the police and all these, obviously critical parts of American infrastructure because they don’t want America to exist.”
And, Lax adds, “They’re winning.”
—John Haughey
BOOKMARKS
Trump said he’s willing to go to jail if ordered by the judge in his New York hush money case, The Epoch Times’ Jack Phillips reported. It comes after he’s racked up a series of contempt of court charges for comments he made about the case to the press.
Former Georgia Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan announced that he plans to vote for Biden in the upcoming election rather than backing his party’s candidate, The Epoch Times’ Naveen Athrappully reported. Duncan described Biden as “a decent man” and Trump as “a criminal defendant without a moral compass.”
Speaker Johnson is rejecting reports that his ongoing talks with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) are a “negotiation,” The Epoch Times’ Joseph Lord reported. Greene herself quickly seemed to give an opposite perspective, publicly discussing several demands she had made of Johnson amid her ongoing threat to force a vote on a motion to vacate.
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) introduced a resolution to censure Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), The Epoch Times’ Jackson Richman reported. It comes after the controversial progressive made comments that Bacon says could “inflame violence against the Jewish community.”
Johnson says the House is weighing defunding Special Counsel Jack Smith’s probes into Trump, The Epoch Times’ Samantha Flom reported. It comes after Greene says she demanded such a move from the speaker in their closed-door meetings.
The judge in Trump’s classified documents trial is delaying further proceedings on the trial without setting a new date, The Epoch Times’ Catherine Yang reported. It comes amid a mountain of ongoing litigation over which classified information will be used in the trial.