More proof that the EAC needs to defer to states who have citizenship qualifications. PJ:

Last week, the Department of Justice Board of Immigration Appeals upheld a decision to deport Margarita Del Pilar Fitzpatrick for voting in a federal election. Fitzpatrick registered to vote in Illinois using the federal “Motor Voter” registration form.

Fitzpatrick’s criminal act is one more example demonstrating that non-citizens voting in American elections is not a myth. The opinion by the Board of Immigration appeals stated:

On August 5, 2005, she applied for an Illinois driver’s license and signed a voter registration application in which she checked a box indicating that she was a United States citizen.

Fitzpatrick was caught by pure accident. When she submitted her application for naturalization in 2007, she indicated on the form that she had registered to vote and had voted in a U.S. election. DHS opened an investigation proceeding based only upon her voluntary red flag. (By law, voting by a noncitizen is a deportable offense, and there is no intent requirement: it doesn’t matter whether the person knew what they were doing was illegal.) Of course, most illegal foreign voters never admit that they have voted. Fitzpatrick would otherwise have never been caught, and she was only caught several years after her illegal vote was counted as legal.