New Haven, Connecticut mayor John DeStefano proposed this week to extend voting rights to non-citizens in his city, including immigrants who entered the country illegally.

The New Haven Independent reports the Democratic mayor will go to the state legislature for permission to enact the changes to local voting requirements. The proposal would only change voting eligibility for local elections in New Haven, not state or federal elections.

“All I’m just saying is that like women and African-Americans before them, this is a class of individuals that are precluded from having a say in the community in which they’re a part of," DeStefano told the Independent.

“I’m just saying if you live here, you work here, you pay taxes here—I think it’s reasonable that you have a say about what goes on,” DeStefano added.

But the mayor faces challenges in getting approval for his plan. Andrew Roraback, a Republican who chairs the legislature's judiciary committee, vows a fight.

"No right is more cherished and more valued than the right to vote, and for us even contemplating extending that right to people who have come to this country unlawfully, is un-American, unpatriotic and unacceptable," Roraback told WCBS Radio.

Jerry Labriola, who chairs Connecticut's Republican Party, said DeStefano's plan was a "publicity stunt." Labriola told Fox News that while he's all for inclusiveness, citizenship has always been the standard for the right to vote.

"We support legal immigration and reasonable measures to provide a path to citizenship, but we don't support providing rewards for illegal immigration," Labriola told the network.

"It's not an idea that I'm particularly comfortable with," Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy, a Democrat, told NECN.com. "I think there are obligations that run with citizenship and there are privileges that run with citizenship." However, the governor told Fox he'd be willing to hear the mayor out on this issue.

The Independent reports Chicago allows non-citizens to vote in school board elections. Several Maryland communities allow non-citizens to vote in municipal elections, including one that extended that right to illegal immigrants in 1992.

DeStefano estimated 10,000-12,000 illegal immigrants live in New Haven.

In 2007, DeStefano made national news when the city offered municipal ID cards to all residents, including illegal immigrants.