A House Republican representing part of New York City says she has “smoking gun” proof that city officials are trying to help get illegal immigrants registered to vote, something the city has staunchly denied.Â
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., announced on Sunday that she had obtained a copy of a contract between New York City’s Department of Social Services and Homes for the Homeless, a nonprofit that has been contracted to build emergency migrant shelters as the border crisis depletes the city’s resources.
In an appendix of that contract, a copy of which was obtained by Fox News Digital, the city appears to require contractors to provide copies of voter registration forms for migrants at their shelters, Malliotakis said.
“This is the smoking gun that proves what we’ve been saying all along, that the city intends to register noncitizens to vote, and even those who are residing in these migrant shelters for just 30 days,” Malliotakis said at a press conference in Staten Island. “It is extremely concerning. It should be concerning to every citizen.”
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The city has denied that it requires migrant shelters to provide voter registration information to illegal immigrants.
A section of the appendix states that contractors who have “regular contact with the public in the daily administration of its business” must “provide and distribute voter registration forms to all persons together with written applications for services, renewal, or recertification for services and change of address relating to such services.”
“Such voter registration forms shall be provided to the Contractor by the City. The Contractor should be prepared to provide forms written in Spanish or Chinese, and shall obtain a sufficient supply of such forms from the City,” the file stated.Â
Another section of the same appendix appears to forbid the shelter from inquiring about immigration status unless specifically required.
However, a spokesperson for the NYC Department of Social Services told Fox News Digital that the provision applies to “eligible clients” in shelter housing.
“These allegations are false and baseless. DHS is legally required to include language around voter registration in shelter contracts and this guidance applies only to eligible clients who are citizens, and would clearly not apply to asylum seekers in shelter,” the spokesperson said.
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“As our teams continue to provide vital case-management services to connect asylum seekers to supports to help them move out of shelter, we strongly caution against lending any credence to such dangerous misrepresentations of the City’s response to this humanitarian crisis.”
The City Council passed a law in 2021 to allow noncitizen residents to vote in local elections, but it was overturned by a New York state judge in July 2022.Â
Malliotakis was among the lawmakers who sued the city over the local ordinance. The city appealed the decision along with migrants’ rights groups.
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