“The president’s statement, coming just days before opening the polls, is tantamount to election fraud,” Rohrabacher stated Monday in the release. “I call on President Obama to recant his statement immediately. Such a statement, coming from someone with the stature of an American president, is unprecedented in history, and it will encourage illegal immigrants to break our election law and thus delegitimize Tuesday’s election.”
In an interview last Thursday with Mitu, a digital-media channel aimed at young Latinos, Rodriguez asked Obama whether the US-born children of people who illegally crossed the border could face deportation or other consequences if they tried to vote.
“Not true,” the president answered. “And the reason is, first of all, when you vote, you are a citizen yourself. And there is not a situation where the voting rolls somehow are transferred over and people start investigating, et cetera. … If you have a family member who maybe is undocumented, then you have an even greater reason to vote.”
Only citizens who have registered to vote are legally allowed to cast ballots in the US elections.