Voter-Registration Error Could Cost Immigrants a Shot at a Green Card
New Jersey improperly added as many as 6,600 noncitizens to its voter rolls. Those people could now be forced out of the country.
When the Democratic governor of New Jersey, Mikie Sherrill, disclosed that the state had improperly registered as many as 6,600 noncitizens to vote, she vowed to do what she could to shield those affected from the fallout.
But for immigrants snagged by what Ms. Sherrill has called a software error, the breach could undercut future hopes for a green card or citizenship, according to lawyers familiar with the complexities of U.S. immigration law.
The roughly 400 noncitizens who Ms. Sherrill has said cast ballots after the state registered them to vote are almost certainly at serious risk of both criminal prosecution and removal from the country, if they were not citizens by the time they voted.
But even those who never voted could be forced to leave the United States.
“They’re in huge trouble,” said Margaret Stock, a lawyer based in Alaska who is considered an authority on U.S. immigration law.
