In Pennsylvania, primary elections for Municipal offices will be held in a few days, May 19th to be exact.  Yard signs and TV ads are everywhere. The election for President of the United States is more than a year away, voting day is November 8, 2016, to be exact.  That’s a long time from now, but the campaigns have already begun.  Candidates have announced and the media is full of Hillary this, Cruz that and Jeb the other thing.  Each of the announced candidates and more of the wannabes have issued a pronouncement on Immigration reform.  There will be exciting national discussions in which most people will want to participate, including non-citizens.  Non-citizens may discuss, but not vote.

 In a decision issued May 7th, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) made that point painfully clear.  In Matter of Fitzpatrick (26 I&N Dec 559), the BIA upheld the removal of Ms. Fitzpatrick, a permanent resident of the U.S., for voting in the general election in Illinois in 2006.  Ms Fitzpatrick was applying for naturalization. She truthfully answered the question on the N-400 that she had voted.  She had registered to vote in conjunction with securing an Illinois driver’s license and did vote.    

 The BIA found that her intent didn’t matter. The DHS didn’t need to prove that she knew that she was committing an unlawful act  by voting in the election as the relevant Federal statute contains no specific intent requirement. 

 At election time, there is excitement and a push to register people to vote.  For the non-citizen, getting excited is fine, but voting can be fatal to a non-citizen’s status in the U.S.