City of Milwaukee - File #: 191841

• File #: 191841
• Version: 0
• Type: Resolution
• Status: Passed
• File created: 3/3/2020
• In control: COMMON COUNCIL
• Final action: 3/24/2020
• Title: Resolution opposing India’s National Register of Citizens and Citizenship Amendment Act and reaffirming Milwaukee as a welcoming city that accepts all peoples regardless of their religious background.
• Sponsors: ALD. JOHNSON, ALD. DODD, ALD. SPIKER
• Indexes: REFUGEES

Date	Ver.	Action By	Action	Result	Tally
4/2/2020	0	MAYOR	SIGNED
3/24/2020	0	COMMON COUNCIL	ADOPTED; Minutes note: Ald. Spiker added as a co-sponsor	Pass	15:0
3/16/2020	0	JUDICIARY & LEGISLATION COMMITTEE	RECOMMENDED FOR ADOPTION; Minutes note: Appearing: Ald. Johnson - Sponsor Add Dodd as co-sponsor. There were no objections.	Pass	5:0
3/3/2020	0	COMMON COUNCIL	ASSIGNED TO

Number
191841

Version
ORIGINAL

Reference

Sponsor
ALD. JOHNSON, DODD, AND SPIKER

Title
Resolution opposing India’s National Register of Citizens and Citizenship Amendment Act and reaffirming Milwaukee as a welcoming city that accepts all peoples regardless of their religious background.

Analysis
This resolution expresses the Common Council’s opposition to India’s National Register of Citizens and Citizenship Amendment Act. The resolution further calls on the Parliament of India to repeal the Citizenship Amendment Act and to stop the National Register of Citizens, and calls on the U.S. Congress to apply diplomatic pressure on the Republic of India to end these policies.

Body
Whereas, On December 11, 2019, the Parliament of India passed the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which, for the first time and in direct opposition to the Indian Constitution, uses religion as a criterion for Indian citizenship; and

Whereas, While the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi claims this policy will help refugees fleeing religious persecution from neighboring countries, the law instead discriminates against Muslims by creating an expanded path to citizenship for Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians, from these countries, while purposely excluding Muslims; and

Whereas, The Modi government has also expressed a desire to expand the updating of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) that was started in the State of Assam in 2013 and requires citizens to provide decades of documentation to prove their citizenship, a burden that is particularly difficult for poor Indians; and

Whereas, The Indian government has already begun constructing large detention camps in anticipation of the impact of this policy; and

Whereas, Combining a nation-wide implementation of the NRC with the CAA effectively gives Prime Minister Modi’s Hindu nationalist government the ability to deny citizenship to any Mus...