No driver’s license for immigrant; everyone less safe
Editor’s note: The author of this Your View is an undocumented immigrant. The Morning Call is not publishing his full name due to the threat of legal repercussions.
My name is Sergio, and I am a father, a grandfather, a 30-year resident of the Lehigh Valley, and an undocumented Pennsylvanian.
During the pandemic, I was a front-line worker, risking my health and the health of my family to keep Pennsylvania running.
Like thousands of others across our state, I’ve raised a family and made my life here. Yet our families are not safe nor valued because of our lack of immigration status — something I and many others across Pennsylvania are working to change through our Driver’s Licenses For All bill, which would allow immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses after passing a written exam and a road test.
My story isn’t unique. My parents brought me to the United States when I was only 9 years old. At that young age I could remember how hard life was in Mexico. In those times it was common for a worker to earn what is equivalent to something like $200 a month. My family could not live like that, which is the reason we moved to the United States.
I have been in this country for a majority of my life, and I don’t have any family in Mexico to go back to. I have raised my children in this country and want to continue being a part of their lives.
I settled down in Pennsylvania, got a job and had kids. And like everyone else, I had to get around somehow, so I recently bought a car to drive.
For the first decade that I lived in Pennsylvania, residents like me could take a driver’s test and get a license under state law. The law allowed us to present our individual tax identification number to apply for a driver’s license, just like documented immigrants currently do. In the early 2000s, however, that changed. Pennsylvania revoked the license of thousands of undocumented immigrants, and driving became a lot riskier for everyone.
Life didn’t change just because the law did. Immigrants still need to get to work, church and school pick-up, so many simply drive without a license. The laws don’t prevent undocumented people from driving, they just prevent us from driving with a license. Once Driver’s Licenses For All passes, people who have been driving without a license will go through driver’s training and tests that all newly licensed drivers do, creating safer roads with more trained drivers.
In the meantime, many of us are still left virtually immobile. When my children were young and their friends were getting dropped off and picked up by their parents, my only choices were to walk them to where they needed to go or find someone else to drive them.
In the summer, that meant walking in the scorching sun. In the winter, that meant slipping on ice and rock salt in the freezing cold. Not having a car in Pennsylvania makes it hard for families to travel for basic needs. There were many times that I could have bought a car when my children were young, but the risk of being caught and deported meant that I would be separated from my children.
Now, my kids are grown with children of their own. Even a simple visit to see them demands exhaustive planning from all parties — it’s too far to walk, so I have to go whenever it’s convenient for a friend to drive me. Walking everywhere is something that a lot of us Allentonians suck up and just do. But a lot of us strive for a better life and one way of achieving this is having a car to move a lot faster, better job opportunities, and just live a better life overall.
However, having a driver’s license also means having an official identification card when driving. It means Pa. would join 18 other states that provide driver’s licenses to all their residents, including undocumented immigrants. It means not being forced to break the law and risk being separated from one’s family for something that many take for granted every single day.
All of our families deserve to be together and safe — and that’s the heart of the Driver’s Licenses For All bill.
As a leader of Make the Road Pennsylvania, a member of the Driving PA Forward Coalition, I have experience organizing for social justice. I know that when we unite to fight for the dignity and respect that we deserve, we can win. And we can win this fight to ensure every Pennsylvanian can access a driver’s license.
Regardless of what we do or where we come from, we are all Pennsylvanians. When some of us are denied access to licenses, our roads, our families and our communities are less safe. I am fighting for the Driver’s Licenses For All bill because it means a better future not just for my children, but for all our children.
Please join me. Contact your state representatives and state senators today and tell them: Now is the time to pass Driver’s Licenses for All.
Sergio is an undocumented immigrant living in Allentown. He is a member of Make the
Road Pennsylvania, an advocacy group for Latino and immigrant communities and working-class communities of color, and the Driving PA forward coalition, which advocates for driver’s license for all Pennsylvania residents.