The city has just allowed more than 800,000 non-citizen New Yorkers to participate in local elections as soon as next year, but a group of conservative elected officials are saying not so fast.

“We are here to stand for the rule of law,” Staten Island City Councilmember Joe Borelli said.

Borelli, along other Republican lawmakers, including Borough President Vito Fossella and Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis, filed a lawsuit at the Richmond County Supreme Court on Monday.

What You Need To Know

  • A group of conservative elected officials filed a lawsuit in Staten Island

  • They argue the new non-citizen voting law violates the state constitution

  • More than 800,000 legal immigrants would get the right to vote in local elections starting next year
  • Mayor Adams supports the measure after expressing doubts initially

They argue the new law violates the state constitution. 

Queens Councilmember Robert Holden, a Democrat, also joined them. 

“What should alarm New Yorkers is that the City Council and now the city government is taking New York State law, throwing it in the garbage and pretending like it doesn’t exist,” Borelli said. 

After years of debating similar bills, the City Council approved the legislation last month. 

Mayor Bill de Blasio didn’t sign it before leaving office, so it became law after thirty days of passage. 

After expressing reservations, Mayor Eric Adams showed support for the measure on Sunday. 

According to his spokesperson, José Bayona, “the administration intends to vigorously defend the law in court.”

The law would allow legal immigrants and those with a work permit to participate in elections for local offices, including mayor and City Council. 

Proponents argue the lawsuit has no merit.

“We should call it what it is. It’s an anti-immigrant, anti-democracy last-ditch attempt by these Republicans to stop the will of the people," Anu Joshi, vice president of policy at the New York Immigration Coalition, said. "This went through the democratic process and we are ready to get to work to implement it.”

Out of the 800,000 New Yorkers eligible to become new voters under this law, more than a 130,000 of them were born in the Dominican Republic, and more than 117,000 were born in China, according to data from the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs. 

With more than 34,000, Mexicans rank third on this list. 

If the law doesn’t get blocked in court, the Board of Elections will have to come up in the next few months with a plan for implementation.

Republicans hope that would also be another opportunity to stop it.