Final month, the annual day celebrating U.S. citizenship got here amid deep challenges for our democracy. The Trump administration has launched an all-out assault on the fitting to vote, threatening to move into legislation new challenges to voter registration that wouldn’t simply make it tougher for many Individuals to make their voices heard, however outright strip tens of thousands and thousands of individuals of their means to vote. In the meantime, in states like California with important immigrant communities, Trump has deployed federal brokers in an try to dam naturalized residents from the poll field forward of the midterm elections. He’s threatened to send those same agents to polling areas on election day.
Sadly, this all comes from a well-recognized authoritarian playbook. My household and I fled to Florida from Venezuela, a spot the place elections are rigged and voters are both brazenly bribed or threatened with violence by the federal government. It doesn’t take a political analyst to see that the Trump administration is quickly taking us to the same place.
This administration is brazenly hostile to democracy itself. Officers hope all of the intimidation and bullying works, that we keep dwelling and take our proper to vote as a right. Properly, that simply isn’t going to occur.
There are 46 million naturalized residents residing within the U.S. proper now — about 5.5 million of them adults in California, which is extra individuals than stay in most states. In line with a 2025 analysis by the Nationwide Partnership for New Individuals, greater than 8 million Individuals obtained citizenship within the final decade alone, myself included. These are households, religion leaders, innovators, caregivers, employees and enterprise house owners from practically each a part of the world, all working collectively to make the material of our nation — together with our democracy — stronger, richer and extra colourful. I do know as a result of I’m one among them.
In 2007, the yr I graduated from highschool, my household and I turned undocumented after an immigration legal professional mishandled our inexperienced card purposes.
From that second on, I might now not afford to disregard politics and elections. Whereas most children at Florida State College had been busy worrying about weekend plans, I used to be tuned into coverage debates within the state Capitol and Washington that I knew might have a profound impact on my life and the lives of these in my group.
I assumed to myself then: In the future, I’ll have the chance to make my voice heard — and once I do, I’m going to make it rely. Practically 20 years later, I did simply that.
Final November, in a particular election in California, I forged my first vote. The method was protected and straightforward, and I might monitor my vote from starting to finish.
Even in spite of everything these years — after graduating from faculty and turning into an advocate for undocumented immigrants throughout the nation; after shifting to Washington, D.C., getting married, after which shifting once more in 2022 to my new dwelling in Los Angeles — that second nonetheless held extra significance than I might’ve imagined, a lot in order that I made certain to all the time bear in mind it by framing my first “I Voted” sticker and putting it proper by my desk.
As a part of the naturalization ceremony, all new residents should increase their proper hand and take an oath to uphold and defend U.S. legal guidelines and the Structure — the identical obligation that every one residents are tasked with finishing up. Voting is an enormous a part of that obligation, whether or not you vote by mail, in individual or at a dropbox. We vote not simply within the face of a menace or in response to bullying, however in favor of one thing larger. Voting is how we defend our democracy, higher our communities and specific ourselves as a free society.
This November shall be my first midterm election, and I, for one, stay up for including a brand new “I Voted” sticker to my assortment. I encourage all voters, particularly naturalized citizen voters, to do the identical. There are 16 million of us already registered, with 6.5 million extra eligible however not yet registered. Let’s ensure that we make our voices heard and that, once more, we don’t take our votes as a right.
Juan Escalante is a digital strategist and immigrant rights advocate working with the Nationwide Partnership for New Individuals.
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Concepts expressed within the piece
- The article argues that naturalized residents have a very significant stake in voting: after years of residing below insurance policies with no vote, turning into a citizen brings each the fitting and accountability to assist form the nation.
- Drawing on the article’s account of a household’s immigration expertise and the author’s first vote, the piece presents voting as a method to defend democracy, strengthen communities and resist intimidation.
- The article contends that proposed registration restrictions and threats of election-day enforcement might deter eligible voters. It urges naturalized residents—and voters extra broadly—to not take the franchise as a right.
Completely different views on the subject
- In contrast, the Trump administration and Republican supporters of stricter voting guidelines argue that extra citizenship checks would assist be sure that solely eligible residents vote and bolster public confidence in elections. The administration has promoted federal citizenship lists and voter-roll critiques for that function.[2][3]
- Supporters additionally contend that proof-of-citizenship necessities would shut gaps in state verification programs. Critics of that rationale notice that citizenship is already required to register for federal elections and that noncitizen voting is uncommon; they warn that documentary necessities might make registration tougher for eligible residents who lack available data.[1][4]
