License law challenge campaign gets rolling

A ballot initiative aimed at overturning a recently passed law to license illegal immigrants to drive has been cleared by the attorney general’s office following accusations of deliberate delay by petitioners.

“You have asked for my opinion whether chapter 81 of the acts of 2022, ‘An Act Relative to Work and Family Mobility,” may be the subject of a referendum petition under Amendment Article 48 of the Massachusetts Constitution,’” Attorney General Maura Healey wrote to Secretary of State William

Galvin Monday.

“I have reviewed the petition and have concluded that chapter 81 is not excluded from the referendum by any provision of art. 48. I therefore enclose the ‘fair, concise summary’ required by art. 48,” Healey wrote.

The approval came just hours after the publication of a Herald story in which ballot proponents, led by Maureen Maloney — the mother of a man slain by an illegal immigrant who was driving drunk — said Healey was complicating their push to overturn the law signed by the Legislature last month over the veto of Gov. Charlie Baker.

That law will allow illegal immigrants who can demonstrate their identity using home-country documentation — like a passport and birth certificate — will be able to apply for driver’s licenses as of next summer.

“The AG finally approved the petition yesterday,” Maloney told the Herald via text on Tuesday. “I gave my approval of the summary last Wednesday. That’s why it was so frustrating that the petition was stalled by the AG office until yesterday.”

Maloney, in close connection to Republican gubernatorial nominee former state Rep. Geoff Diehl, leads the campaign to see the law overturned. She says her team is already at work now that they can start.

“The Fair and Secure MA committee is distributing petitions and collecting signatures. We are very excited to be collecting signatures to get the drivers license question on the ballot for November,” she said.

She needs 40,000 signatures to have a shot, which gets her on the ballot, and a recent UMass Amherst/WCVB poll found that the law is not viewed favorably as structured, showing 46% oppose it and just 40% approve.

“Despite its reputation as the nation’s most liberal state, there are limits to Massachusetts residents’ liberalism,” political science professor Jesse Rhodes said with the poll’s release.

“A plurality of residents opposes legislation that would allow undocumented immigrants to be eligible for a driver’s license in the state,” he said.

Proponents of the law say it will lead to safer roads for every driver in the state by allowing those without lawful presence to participate in driver’s training programs and the licensing and insurance processes.

Opponents say it rewards illegal behavior and will draw more people without lawful presence into the state.