Local News

Worcester rejects petition that would have forced immigrants running for office to show their papers

Residents and city councilors said the petition was “bigoted,” “xenophobic,” and filled with “hate.”

Worcester City Hall. Matthew Healey for The Boston Globe

October 18, 2024

2 minutes to read

A petition to require candidates for office in Worcester to submit naturalization papers as proof of citizenship was met with stark opposition Tuesday night at a Worcester City Council meeting.

“This was strategically placed right before an election,” Worcester Mayor and City Councilor-at-Large Joseph Petty said at the meeting. “It could have been placed a year ago. It could have been placed several months ahead of us. It seems to have been placed tonight, so we can all talk about this.”

He continued, “Unfortunately, sometimes people believe this rhetoric, but I’m not going to allow it.”

The Worcester City Council voted unanimously to file the petition, killing it from moving forward.

The law already states that to run for office one must be a registered voter, which requires citizenship. However, the petition filed by the Worcester Republican City Committee was asking for additional documentation.

The petition said that candidates not born in the United States but who have become naturalized American citizens “will be required, under oath, to submit naturalization papers or other legal documents as proof of citizenship to the city clerk” before they can be eligible to run for office.

Listed in its submitted reasoning, the committee stated, “Citizens of other countries should not be setting taxation, zoning, housing, infrastructure, and educational policies on American citizens.”

The committee also stated that the petition was filed to obtain “FREE” press and advertising for the political group.

“As you know, we live in a country that is based on the rule of law,” Mary Ann Carroll, chair of the Worcester City Republican Committee, said at the meeting. “I am here tonight to ask for your help to ensure that the laws of our country, and our state, and our city are followed regarding candidates for election in the city of Worcester.”

Carroll added, “This is not a cumbersome extra step” to ask naturalized citizens to provide extra documentation to prove their citizenship. “It only excludes people who are excluded by law.”

Carroll was in the minority when speaking in favor of the petition. In the close-to-two-hour public speaking session of the meeting, only three out of 54 people spoke in favor of it.

Most spoke of how the petition is filled with bigotry, xenophobia, and fearmongering.

“This is a stunt,” said Fred Taylor, the president of the local NAACP chapter, during a virtual call into the meeting. “A stunt to sow division, a stunt to inflame hate, a stunt to discourage future candidates. Hate has no place in the city of Worcester.”

Two city councilors are naturalized citizens: District 5’s Etel Haxhiaj from Albania and at-large member Thu Nguyen from Vietnam.

Haxhiaj said she has been targeted online by people requesting her to release her naturalization papers and photos of her becoming an American citizen.

“I am here to stay, and I’ve got nothing to prove for those of you who seek to divide us,” Haxhiaj said at the meeting.

She continued, “Extremist ideas will not stand unchallenged. It is time for you to retract them and throw them in the garbage where they belong.”