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Ackerman Flays Move To Ban Contributions from Green Card Holders

A P Kamath in Washington

A legislative effort to ban campaign contributions from legal permanent residents (Green Card holders) was undemocratic and short-sighted, said Congressman Gary L Ackerman.

"This [Bereuter and Wicker] amendment besides being unfair is also unconstitutional," Ackerman (Democrat, NY), the co-chairman of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, said.

"It prevents Legal Permanent Residents from participating in the American political process," he said. "Our aim must be increased participation of people in our political process and not shut out one category or the other."

A $ 500 per person fund-raiser for Ackerman is organized this weekend in Atlanta by the Indian American community. A staunch friend of Indian Americans, Ackerman is attending Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations at the Hindu temple in Flushing on Sunday at 9.30 am.

He added, "To me it appears that the amendment is unconstitutional as well because the US Supreme Court has affirmed that political contributions are a type of protected First Amendment speech. And our Constitution applies not just merely to US citizens, but to all people in the US," he said.

On Tuesday, the House of Representatives passed a bill -- for a second year in a row -- to limit the influence of money in politics and tighten the loopholes through which "soft money" is given to fight the elections.

Soft money is the unlimited and unregulated donations to political parties, which is used in various ways to support political candidacy of top officials, including that of the president; on the other hand, there is a limit of $ 1,000 per person in a presidential race.

While there are serious doubts of the bill being enacted and the debate about it continues, several Congressmen have started discussing the issue of financial contributions by Green Card holders.

Legal immigrants, said Ackerman, a leading member of the House International Relations Committee, pay income taxes, property taxes and own businesses that are subject to government regulations.

"They must register for selective services, and therefore, if called, have to fight and die for our country. And many have."

Ackerman said legal immigrants were stakeholders in American society. He said that according to some estimates, some two million of them are trying to become US citizens. They, however, cannot because of a two-year backlog at the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

"Instead of trying to shut out legal immigrants from our great democratic traditions and process, we must instead focus our attention and resources on speeding up the naturalization process," he said.

"We must be inclusionary and not exclusionary in approach."

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