Should legal immigrants be allowed to vote? New York and other cities are thinking about letting legal immigrants vote in local elections, a right only citizens currently have.

• Position: Debate

YES In my hometown, Takoma Park, Md., all adults can vote in local elections, whether or not they're U.S. citizens. Everyone wants good schools and clean parks, and the city wants everyone to participate in local government. So why would we disenfranchise our neighbors who have recently come from Canada, El Salvador, or Haiti?

Some people say that legal immigrants should have to wait until they become citizens to vote. When it comes to national elections, I agree.

But at the local level, all residents are already "citizens" in the sense that one definition of citizen is "an inhabitant of a city or town." Immigrants should not have to wait until they're naturalized to be able to vote for the school board or the city council, which have important effects on their lives.

We have no problem making immigrants pay income, property, and sales taxes. They are subject to all our laws and eligible to serve in the military. Many are fighting, and dying, in Iraq. We should not impose the duties of citizenship but withhold the right to participate in local government.

There is nothing radical about "alien suffrage." In the 18th and 19th centuries, many states granted immigrants the right to vote, even in state and national elections. (These rights were revoked in the early 20th century.)

I wouldn't go that far today, but the U.S. has 20 million recent immigrants who would benefit from a taste of American political democracy at the local level. It will make them hungry to become citizens, and it will be good for all of us to have them participating.

Jamin Raskin

Professor of Law

American University

NO Our Constitution begins "We the people of the United States," not "We the inhabitants" or "We the taxpayers" or "We the consumers." Access to our political institutions should therefore be reserved for the American...