Voters in November will determine the fate of a much-debated bill allowing undocumented immigrants access to driver’s licenses after a petition seeking to undo the law garnered enough signatures to appear on the ballot.
The bill, which passed the state legislature in May, was vetoed by outgoing Gov. Charlie Baker. The legislature then overrode the governor’s veto, establishing the bill, known as “An Act Relative to Work & Family Mobility” as the law of the land. Sen. Brendan Crighton (D-Lynn) served as the bill’s sponsor in the senate.
On Sunday, Crighton said the bill has become tied up in a larger debate about immigration, which has shifted focus away from its true purpose.
“Here in Massachusetts, we have no control over what the federal immigration laws are. But unfortunately, it is a divisive issue. And obviously, the opponents tried to use it as a way to mislead folks about what the bill is actually intended to do,” he said in a telephone interview. “So it’s nothing to do with immigration.”
At its core, the bill creates safer roads for drivers across the state, Crighton said.
“The constituents that I talk to on a regular basis in my district and across the commonwealth believe that we should have the same set of rules for everyone on the road,” he said. “Law enforcement helped us to craft this so it’d be done in the safest possible way. And in other states, we’ve seen great results as far as road safety goes, which leads to less hit and run accidents and less folks that are uninsured or underinsured. So this is really about road safety.”
“This has nothing to do with someone’s citizenship, with their voting, with their benefits. It’s only about making sure that our roads are safe. And I’m confident that the Massachusetts residents across the state will come out in support,” Crighton continued.
Crighton encouraged voters to turn out and vote “yes” on the ballot question, which will appear as Question 4. A “no” vote would be a vote to repeal the bill.
The push to overturn the bill began shortly after its passage, when Maureen Maloney, of Milford, and Kevin Dube, of North Andover, filed paperwork with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance to create Fair and Secure Massachusetts, a committee with a stated purpose of “repeal[ing] drivers licenses for illegal aliens.”
The committee has since spent nearly $40,000 on its effort to repeal the bill, and garnered more than 100,000 signatures, according to state Republican Party Chair Jim Lyons. The Elections Division on Friday announced that more than 70,000 of the signatures garnered had been certified, easily clearing the 40,120 mark needed to get the question on the ballot.
Charlie McKenna can be reached at [email protected].
