Andrew Yang, former Democrat presidential candidate and current New York City mayoral candidate, said noncitizens should have the right to vote, outlining his vision during a “reforming democracy” press event Tuesday.
The tech entrepreneur, who filed paperwork to run for mayor late last year, spoke alongside Democrat City Council Member Carlos Menchaca at the event and detailed his vision to expand voting, including lowering the voting age to 16.
“Now how can we continue to invest in our democracy to make it better here in New York City. I think we should enable young people to vote starting at age 16,” he said, stating young people “don’t feel like their voices are being heard.”
But Yang did not stop there, and floated the idea of expanding the right to vote to noncitizens.
“The second thing we should do is expand the franchise to noncitizens, lawful permanent residents,” Yang said, describing New York City as a “city of immigrants.”
Describing himself as the son of immigrants, Yang continued:
And immigrants from the core of so many of our neighborhoods and communities. There are approximately 6220,000 lawful permanent residents, you probably think of them as green card holders, who are responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue. Their kids go to our schools. They supply many of the jobs that we rely upon. They should have a say in the future of their city. too.
“We can enable green card holders, lawful permanent residents, to be able to vote,” Yang added, praising Menchaca and City Council member Margaret Chin (D) for putting forward the “Our City, Our Vote” bill that “would enable this to happen.”
“We should enable lawful permanent residents to vote. This is their city, too. So young people, noncitizens, we have to invest in the mechanics of our democracy at a higher level,” he added.
Yang, who rose to the spotlight during the Democrat primary race after making a Universal Basic Income (UBI) central to his campaign, appeared to buck the open borders lobby during the race, confirming to Breitbart News at the time that his plan would only extend to American citizens.
“It goes to citizens,” Yang said at the time. “So it would not go to undocumented immigrants.”
Yang made waves among far-left Democrats last week after tweeting support for Israel during Palestinian rocket attacks. Some leftists even smeared him as a “white supremacist.”
“I’m standing with the people of Israel who are coming under bombardment attacks, and condemn the Hamas terrorists,” Yang said at the time. “The people of NYC will always stand with our brothers and sisters in Israel who face down terrorism and persevere”:
I'm standing with the people of Israel who are coming under bombardment attacks, and condemn the Hamas terrorists. The people of NYC will always stand with our brothers and sisters in Israel who face down terrorism and persevere.
— Andrew Yang🗽🇺🇸 (@AndrewYang) May 10, 2021
He later backtracked amid pressure from the far-left:
— Andrew Yang🗽🇺🇸 (@AndrewYang) May 12, 2021
An Emerson College and PIX11 survey released this week shows Yang trailing in the mayoral race, falling behind Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams (D), who garnered 18 percent support. Yang saw 15 percent support, but over one-fifth of voters remain undecided ahead of the June 22 Democrat primary.
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