Trying to take the wheel
Lawmakers renew push to allow driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants
A broad coalition of more than 200 elected officials, union leaders and others are relaunching a bill that would permit undocumented immigrants to apply for a driver’s license.
State Rep. Tricia Farley Bouvier, lead sponsor of the legislation, said allowing migrants to drive instead of carpooling or taking mass transit would protect them, their families and the public from transmitting the coronavirus.
“This policy change is very common sense,” said Farley-Bouvier, D-Pittsfield. “COVID-19 has shone a bright light on why driver’s licenses are so important. Immigrants are on public transportation, putting them at greater risk of getting COVID. It’s best for all of us if everybody has a driver’s license.”
Immigrants with or without legal status make up nearly a quarter of Massachusetts’ essential workforce, according to the Center for Migration Studies in New York.
“Especially during the pandemic, it was evident that they are essential workers. They are the ones who provide food for us, take care of the elderly, work in hospitals,” said Dalida Rocha, co-chair of the Driving Families Forward Coalition and political director of Service Employees International Union 32BJ. “This would allow them to commute to work without exposing themselves, their families and the public.”
Last fall, 15 cases of the coronavirus on Nantucket were linked to immigrants carpooling to their jobs.
Katherine Lopez has been a permanent legal resident since 2013 and obtained a driver’s license the following year. But she remembers working two jobs before that, one of which was a Newton fast-food restaurant that was not accessible by public transit.
“I needed to buy food. I needed to pay my rent, otherwise I would end up on the street,” said Lopez, 43, of Waltham. “I decided I had to drive. It was scary being out there without a license. I didn’t feel safe anywhere.”
If Farley-Bouvier’s bill becomes law, an estimated 41,000 to 78,000 of the roughly 182,000 immigrants without legal status in Massachusetts would obtain licenses within the first three years of implementation, according to the Center for Migration Studies and the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center.
Sixteen states, as well as Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, already offer undocumented immigrants access to driver’s licenses.