AOC Says GOP Reviving ‘Legacy of Slavery’ by Ending Non-citizen Voting Rights in DC

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., implied Wednesday that racism lies behind this week’s push by Republicans to end voting rights for non-citizens in the capital of Washington, D.C.

House lawmakers debated a resolution that would disapprove of a D.C. Council law allowing non-citizens and illegal immigrants to vote in the city. Several Democrats took to the floor to argue that Republicans were looking to micromanage the city, and Ocasio-Cortez went further by saying the GOP seems to be targeting minorities.

She said Republicans “claim they believe in the sacred right to vote while denying that right to vote to an overwhelmingly Black city,” and accused Republicans of trying to “meddle into the business of D.C. residents.”

Ocasio-Cortez added that while other cities around the country have allowed non-citizens to vote, Republicans are only calling up legislation dealing with Washington, D.C.

“They’re singling out the residents of the District of Columbia and expanding in the history of disenfranchisement that goes all the way back to the legacy of slavery,” she argued.

Ocasio-Cortez erupted at Republicans last week just before lawmakers passed a resolution that kicked Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., off the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

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