Marcela Rosas de Cid came to the U.S. in 2012 with her three children from Michoacan, Mexico. Leaving her community and everything she knew, she joined her husband in the United States after living apart for more than a decade. Together, they made a new home in Santa Ana, California, where they live and work and all their children have attended local schools.
In Santa Ana, the second-most populous city in Orange County, one in four residents are noncitizens. Since the 1970s, Santa Ana has become an increasingly Spanish-speaking city as people from across Latin America migrated and established families, businesses, and community roots. Today, 68.7% of Santa Ana residents speak Spanish. The city also has a large Asian diaspora, with nearly 10% of residents speaking Asian and Pacific Island languages such as Vietnamese, Chinese, and Tagalog.
This is how Marcela came to find her footing in a new country and a new city. Alongside community members from many racial and ethnic backgrounds, she began advocating for local causes and resources. She found friends, purpose, and pride participating in events like Santa Ana’s Fiestas Patrias celebrating Latine Heritage Month or volunteering with VietRISE at the Little Saigon Community Festival, celebrating Vietnamese culture.
Noncitizens and immigrants like Marcela are integral to society. They are parents, taxpayers, and business owners, and in Santa Ana, about 28% of the adult population. They contribute meaningfully to their communities, yet they are unable to participate in city elections solely because of their immigration status, despite many having lived here for decades and contributing significantly to the local economy, more than $117 million annually in state and local taxes. Measure DD offers Santa Ana voters an opportunity to strengthen our democracy by allowing noncitizens to vote for city officials and influence policies that shape their daily lives, regardless of citizenship status.
Historically, the right to vote has been tied to residency rather than citizenship. Since the nation's founding, many groups—including women of all races, Black men, and white men without property—were excluded from voting, while some noncitizens who met specific criteria could vote in as many as 40 states and territories and numerous local jurisdictions.
Despite these barriers, the U.S. Supreme Court, in the landmark 1964 case Reynolds v. Sims, acknowledged that “history has seen a continuing expansion of the scope of the right of suffrage in this country.” The movement toward universal suffrage includes the ratification of the Fifteenth, Nineteenth, and Twenty-sixth Amendments, which granted voting rights to Black men, women of all races, and young adults over 18, respectively. Many states, including California, are also working to restore voting rights for individuals with criminal convictions, reversing disenfranchisement rooted in Jim Crow-era laws.
The history of noncitizen voting has experienced cycles of expansion and contraction, with a significant rollback during the xenophobia of World War I. However, permanently excluding noncitizens from voting is not inevitable. Recent efforts in cities like San Francisco, Oakland, New York, and now Santa Ana represent steps toward inclusivity. These initiatives align with the principles underpinning American independence, democracy, and past suffrage movements: the belief that government derives legitimacy from the consent of the governed, that there should be no taxation without representation, and that those “old enough to fight are old enough to vote.”
Voting rights confer dignity, social standing, and political education upon those who hold them, and this reasoning applies to noncitizens as well. Like citizens, noncitizen residents have a vested interest in local governance, are subject to laws, contribute to the workforce, pay taxes, and some even serve in the military.
As early as the 1800s, courts acknowledged the injustice of denying noncitizens the right to vote. For example, in an 1809 Pennsylvania case, a judge emphasized argued that residency and tax contributions gave noncitizen individuals a stake in the community, justifying their right to participate in decisions regarding the use of public funds and local regulations.
While federal immigration laws differentiate between individuals, our communities and local political systems are not defined by these laws or by xenophobic views. Federal law allows noncitizens to vote in local elections if state and local laws permit it, and a 2023 court ruling affirmed that charter cities like Santa Ana have the constitutional authority to expand voting rights in local elections.
Santa Ana deserves a local government that serves all residents. Passing Measure DD would compel city officials to be more transparent, responsive to residents' needs, and accountable with taxpayer dollars. Expanding voting rights in city elections to all adult residents will ensure that Santa Ana's government represents everyone who lives here. Santa Ana will be a stronger city when all residents can participate in decisions that affect their lives.
“Measure DD would help empower our communities by reminding us that we have rights, and reminding politicians that we are human beings, regardless of our immigration status,” said Marcela. “We are worthy and have a voice in our democracy.”
Vote YES on Measure DD to ensure Santa Ana city government represents ALL of us.
Read more on why the ACLU SoCal votes YES on Measure DD and see our full ballot guide.
