Stephen Miller slams NYT essay calling for non-citizens to be given right to vote

Former Trump advisor Stephen Miller has slammed The New York Times for publishing an opinion column titled ‘There Is No Good Reason You Should Have to Be a Citizen to Vote’.

The ‘guest essay’ – which was penned by noncitizen Atossa Araxia Abrahamian – was published Wednesday ‘as part of a series exploring bold ideas to revitalize and renew the American experiment.’ 

In the piece, Abrahamian – who hails from Switzerland, but now lives in Brooklyn – staked a case for letting legal visa holders vote in US elections. 

But Miller attacked The Times for even publishing the column during an appearance on Fox News Friday. 

He stated: ‘The New York Times opinion piece is extraordinarily revealing for the mindset of the left – which is they want to erode and ultimately erase the very idea of American citizenship.’

He continued: ‘Voting is not just a right. It’s also a responsibility. You have to learn our country’s history, its culture, its language, its values to be able to make an informed decision about voting.’

 In her piece, Abrahamian described the types of noncitizens she believes should be allowed to vote, including: ‘People with green cards, people here on work visas, and those who arrived in the country as children and are still waiting for permanent papers [known as ‘Dreamers’]’.  

In his interview with Fox News, Miller seized on that final category, claiming The New York Times appeared to be pushing for illegal aliens to also vote in elections. 

He stated: ‘Americans are Americans. Citizens are citizens and dreamers, so-called, are illegal immigrants… We deprive people of this country of their language, of their ability to be able to speak clearly, and to say: ‘No, if you come here illegally you are not a citizen. You are not an American. You don’t have the right to vote in our elections. You do not have the right to occupy American jobs.”

Miller added: ‘These are not controversial thoughts. These are basic fundamental ideas to what it means to have and to keep a nation.

In the piece, Abrahamian wrote: ‘Nearly 15 million people living legally in the United States… don’t have a say in matters of politics and policy because we — resident foreign nationals, or ‘aliens’ as we are sometimes called — cannot vote.’ 

She staked a case for allowing noncitizens to be able to cast ballots, saying:  ‘Allowing people to vote gives them even more of a sense of investment in their towns, cities, communities and country. There’s a detachment that comes with not being able to vote in the place where you live.’

Abrahamian conceded that the move would be beneficial to Americans, as immigrants – both legal and illegal – tend to swing left. 

‘It’s time for Democrats to radically expand the electorate. Proposing federal legislation to give millions of young people and essential workers a clear road to citizenship is a good start.’

She continued: ‘Democrats are likely to be the biggest beneficiaries of this change — at least at first. But it could have interesting ripple effects: Elected Republicans might be induced to appeal to a more diverse constituency or perhaps to enthuse their constituents so deeply that they, too, start to vote in greater numbers.’ 

Abrahamian ultimately declared: ‘Expanding the franchise in this way would give American democracy new life, restore immigrants’ trust in government and send a powerful message of inclusion to the rest of the world.’

But Miller hit back on Fox, saying the naturalization process that immigrants go through to achieve citizenship and be able to vote remains fundamental.

‘That’s why this country has a naturalization process – a lawful process to go through to learn who we are and what we’re about. One of the things that we did during the Trump Administration that’s actually been reversed by President Biden was we actually improved and upgraded the naturalization process to put a greater emphasis on American history and American values,’ he stated.