A petition that would have required candidates running for elected office in Worcester to be U.S. citizens has been rejected, with city councilors slamming the Republican City Committee for its “cowardice.”

The Worcester City Council unanimously voted against the petition, titled “Fairness in Representation,” from the Worcester Republican City Committee on Tuesday.

If approved, candidates would have been required to be U.S. citizens to be eligible to hold elected office, beginning with next year’s municipal election.

“Any candidate not born in or within the jurisdiction of the United States, but has become a naturalized American citizen by the time signature papers are due for that year’s election, may be eligible to hold elected office,” the petition states.

“Such candidates, however,” it adds, “will be required, under oath, to submit naturalization papers or other legal documents as proof of citizenship to the city clerk’s office and any other necessary office or department.”

Committee Chairwoman Mary Ann Carroll called the proposal “not a new concept” in the city, highlighting how city employees are required to complete an I-9 form, a document that verifies employment eligibility. A similar concept should be followed for elected officials, she argued.

“This is not a cumbersome extra step,” Carroll said. “This is just a simple showing of the proper identification. It only excludes people who are excluded by law anyway.

“To be a citizen of the United States,” she added, “you have the privilege to vote and you have the privilege to run for elected office. Noncitizens are excluded from those privileges.”

Though Carroll spoke positively about her petition, residents and elected officials blasted the Republican City Committee for attempting to ignite fear and divide the community weeks before the Nov. 5 election.

Two members of the 10-person City Council are immigrants themselves – District 5 Councilor Etel Haxhiaj immigrated from Albania and Councilor-at-Large Thu Nguyen from Vietnam.

“Love and unity are how we respond to exclusionary ideology,” Haxjiaj said. “The ideas outlined … in the petition … reek of cowardice.”

Community members took exception to the Republican City Committee’s “purpose” outlined behind the petition.

“Citizens of other countries should not be setting taxation, zoning, housing, infrastructure, and educational policies on American citizens,” it states. “When opponents see the WRCC’s website on the agenda item they will likely go to the site only to see a good portion of it is in Spanish. Once submitted, local talk radio, voters, and activists can be contacted. This is a good (and FREE) way to get the WRCC name better known.”

Discussion around the petition sparked on social media last week, with the Massachusetts Democratic Party weighing in and calling on the Massachusetts GOP to reject the “harmful and divisive proposal” and to “publicly condemn” it.

As of Wednesday, the GOP had not responded to the call on X.

“This measure, which requires naturalized citizens to provide additional documentation to prove their eligibility to run for office, echoes the harmful, exclusionary policies of the Trump era,” Democratic Party Chairman Steve Kerrigan stated in an X post last week.

“It attempts to marginalize certain citizens, questioning their loyalty and fitness to serve, based solely on where they were born,” he added. “Let’s not forget that George Washington himself was not an American citizen when he was born.”

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Worcester Mayor Joseph Petty said he attended a naturalization ceremony for 34 immigrants on Tuesday, ahead of the City Council meeting. His city, he said, embraces people from all over the world.

Petty also highlighted how Republicans denied that former President Barack Obama was a U.S. citizen and believed that his birth certificate was fraudulent.

“This was strategically placed right before an election. It could have been placed a year ago, several months ahead of us,” Petty said of the petition. “Sometimes people believe this rhetoric, but I’m not going to allow it.”