Noncitizens Embrace Political Process

By Sandhya Somashekhar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 1, 2008; B02

Aicha Bensaid Samrhouni has been almost single-minded in her desire to see Barack Obama elected president. She speared the yard of her Herndon home with blue campaign signs. She donated hundreds of dollars toward his efforts. She is taking Election Day off to work the polls.

But she will not be casting a ballot Tuesday, for Obama or anyone else. An immigrant from Morocco, she is not a U.S. citizen and therefore is not eligible to vote. It was a reality that washed over her one recent evening as her husband spoke of Obama's chances.

"She had tears in her eyes and she said, 'I wish I could vote,' " Hassan Samrhouni recalled. "I thought, 'Oh my goodness, I can't believe this.' "

Aicha Samrhouni is a legal permanent resident, one of about 12 million in the United States, according to Department of Homeland Security estimates. They enjoy almost all the benefits of citizenship -- except the right to vote.

Less than half of the almost 1.1 million foreign-born residents in the Washington area are citizens, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Although a sizeable but unknown number are believed to be illegal immigrants, thousands are legal but have not been naturalized. They include foreign students, temporary workers, people granted political asylum and permanent residents such as Samrhouni, among others.

Although noncitizens can't vote, they are not barred from participating in elections in other ways. Those with green cards, who have achieved legal permanent status, are permitted to make campaign contributions. And anyone can knock on doors, hand out fliers or register voters.

The number of donors and volunteers who fall into the noncitizen category is not known. The Federal Election Commission does not keep track of donors by citizenship status, and the campaigns say they accept volunteers without asking about status.

Steve Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that advocates for stricter immigration policies, estimates that the number of foreign citizens influencing U.S. elections is tiny and not troubling.

"The whole point of immigration is to create future Americans," he said. "So if people are participating in a legal fashion and they're here legally, that can be seen as a step toward successful assimilation."

Still, many noncitizens have been energized by this year's historic race. Some, such as Samrhouni, were inspired by Obama's oratory and his unlikely success as the child of a Kenyan immigrant.

Others, such as Isabel León, were drawn to Sen. John McCain because of socially conservative values and a desire for a strong national defense. León, 60, a retired teacher who lives in Richmond, said through an interpreter that she immigrated to the United States in 1991 to flee violent conditions in her home country of Peru.

"The values of the Republican Party are similar to the values of the Hispanic community," said León, a staunch Catholic who opposes abortion and same-sex marriage. "I came from a country where I saw terrorism, and I don't want that to happen in the United States."

This year, she has knocked on doors in neighborhoods with large Spanish-speaking populations for the McCain campaign and registered voters at Hispanic churches.

U.S. immigration authorities received a flood of citizenship applications last year, partly because of a fee increase for permanent residents to renew their status, but also because of interest in the election. Hundreds of thousands of applicants were expected to be delayed beyond the election because of the backlog; exactly how many did not make it will not be known until later this month.

Some groups have sought to emphasize to noncitizens that they can sometimes make a greater impact by volunteering than by casting a single vote.

Officials with the Service Employees Union International branch that represents janitors and security guards in the Washington area estimated that a majority of its members were not U.S. citizens, although the union does not explicitly ask its members about their immigration status. But they have mobilized dozens of workers -- some of whom make less than $11 an hour and work multiple jobs -- to take time off to canvass and make calls for Obama. Many have even been persuaded to donate money, as little as a dollar a week.

Jaime Contreras, area director and district chair for SEIU Local 32BJ, tells a story of a conversation he witnessed about a year ago to emphasize to workers the value of volunteering.

"One worker said, 'I'm not a U.S. citizen. I can't vote. Why should I do anything for the election?' " he recounted. "The other said, 'I'm not a citizen, either, but I took 20 people to the polls on Election Day. So I voted 20 times.' That's the type of message that we're trying to convey, that you can still have an impact even if you can't vote."

Aicha Samrhouni's journey into political activism began earlier this year when she read Obama's book "The Audacity of Hope," which she said revealed the candidate to be "a great thinker and a great man."

Before that, she said, becoming a U.S. citizen did not seem important, even though her husband is naturalized and her two children were born in the United States. Now, with the chance that Obama might win, and with Virginia in the rare position of being up for grabs, it hurts her even more that she did not apply for her citizenship as soon as she had a chance.

A copy of the memoir was on the sofa next to her as she explained that, although she visits her family in Morocco almost every year, her connection to the country grows weaker each year.

"After we are there for some time, we want to come back here. This is home," Samrhouni said. "I just feel that I have more in common with the Americans. I feel like I am American."

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