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https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/06/us/politics/noncitizen-voting-government-shutdown.html
Republicans across the country have spent months pushing the unsubstantiated idea that a swarm of undocumented immigrants is poised to vote illegally and swing the upcoming election to Democrats.
It’s a false narrative, aimed at scoring political points with Republicans’ hard-right base, but it could still create real chaos on Capitol Hill in the run-up to the election.
But House Republicans are hoping to weaponize the idea in their fight with Democrats over funding the government by a Sept. 30 deadline.
Whether the maneuver will give those Republicans the political leverage they are seeking — and how far they are willing to go to try to gain it — is an open question. It may take a government shutdown to find out.
A shutdown showdown
There are plenty of precedents for the coming shutdown showdown, which usually go something like this: Republicans and Democrats reach a stalemate over spending and run out of time for a deal. Republicans demand concessions on a politically charged issue — in this case, addressing illegal voting by immigrants — as the price of agreeing to any more federal funding, gambling that Democrats will fear a voter backlash if they refuse. Democrats balk, gambling that the G.O.P. will shoulder the blame for forcing an unpopular shutdown.
Republicans across the country have spent months pushing the unsubstantiated idea that a swarm of undocumented immigrants is poised to vote illegally and swing the upcoming election to Democrats.
It’s a false narrative, aimed at scoring political points with Republicans’ hard-right base, but it could still create real chaos on Capitol Hill in the run-up to the election.
But House Republicans are hoping to weaponize the idea in their fight with Democrats over funding the government by a Sept. 30 deadline.
Whether the maneuver will give those Republicans the political leverage they are seeking — and how far they are willing to go to try to gain it — is an open question. It may take a government shutdown to find out.
A shutdown showdown
There are plenty of precedents for the coming shutdown showdown, which usually go something like this: Republicans and Democrats reach a stalemate over spending and run out of time for a deal. Republicans demand concessions on a politically charged issue — in this case, addressing illegal voting by immigrants — as the price of agreeing to any more federal funding, gambling that Democrats will fear a voter backlash if they refuse. Democrats balk, gambling that the G.O.P. will shoulder the blame for forcing an unpopular shutdown.
