WPCNR NEWS AND COMMENT. By John F. Bailey. November 2, 2016:
In 6 days the 2016 Presidential Election takes place. But, as the Gannett papers revealed last week over a million immigrants who are here legally who have applied for citizenship in order to vote, are not going to be approved in time to vote. It is to Gannett’s credit they published this story in US TODAY two weeks ago, but I was curious as to why this situtation was allowed to fester and drag out, much to the disappointment of immigrants waiting already seven months or more for approval of citizenship.
Hezi Aris, the editor of the Yonkers Tribune and host of On the Level heard worldwide on Blogtalk radio, has Michael Edelman as a guest on his Monday show every week. Last week after my segment on that show co-hosting with Hezi ended I suggested to Hezi he ask Mr. Edelman what he knew about what caused the delay that have cost thousands hoping to vote the opportunity for another four years.\
I specifically wondered why advocates for the immigrants had not brought this issue to light in a law suit or in a protest.
Edelman told Mr. Aris on the air that “neither the applicants nor representatives of the applicants have legal standing to demand faster approval, and that the government can do just so much considering the budget with which they function, and that no legal force can impose a deadline by which the applications win final approval, by a process hindered by many applications and no funds to meet the demands.The applicants are not yet citizens, they are applicants only.”
This issue is published just two weeks before the election just when the deadline is past for registering to vote.
So isn’t it convenient that a million possible new voters whose paper work has been filed and accepted have not been handled in an expeditious process, in a Democrat-controlled administration? Why did not President Obama divert some funds to add more personnel to speed the process?
Maybe the government did not want to add new voters to the roles?
Were both Republicans and Democrat elected officals afraid of which way new voters might vote?
Another example of the government’s inability to deal with a problem that is easily fixed by adding more people and gearing up as the applications increased. Didn’t they see this coming?
And why wasn’t this reported prior two weeks before the election?
It’s too late now. The press is almost always too late and cannot see a big story when it is staring them in the face.
And where were the immigration lawyers on this issue? The lawyers who make money helping immigrants here legally apply for citizenship should have brought attention to this.
We handled the Ellis Island immigration in the 19th century better than we handled new citizenship for legal immigrants in the 21st century.
Another bungle by Washington. Intentional or an accident? What do you think?
