New Jersey could very well join the handful of states that have made their roads safer for all by allowing undocumented immigrants to apply for driver’s licenses, following state Senate president Stephen Sweeney’s apparent endorsement. “It would be better to find a system,” he said during an interview last week, “that allows someone to drive in a legal way that doesn’t hamper our ability to keep ourselves safe.”
Currently, only 12 states and Washington, D.C., allow undocumented immigrants to apply for driver’s licenses, though research has shown public safety improves when drivers have to undergo road tests and insure their vehicles in order to share our roads. In California, more than 1 million undocumented immigrants have applied for driver’s licenses thanks to a 2015 law. Licenses can also mean so much more than just the ability to drive legally.
Undocumented immigrants have been arrested and turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after driving without a license and then getting pulled over by police. In Georgia last year, Alicia Ortiz-Mojica was arrested with two of her U.S. citizen kids sitting in the backseat. Alicia’s family, unable to pay the $12,000 bond set by an immigration judge, set up an online fundraiser to raise the needed money as the mom languished in detention for months.
While a driver’s license bill introduced in the New Jersey legislature places some restrictions—“the way the bill reads now, the driver's licenses could be used only to drive, and not to purchase firearms, access commercial flights or enter federal buildings”—advocates are supporting it as an important first step, including staging a 300-mile march in support. In light of congressional inaction of immigration reform, local and state actions are the way to go to protect immigrant communities.
"We are heartened by Senate President Sweeney's support of expanding access to driver’s licenses to immigrant drivers in New Jersey,” said Janet Caicedo of immigrant rights group Make the Road New Jersey. “Access to driver’s licenses protects our families, makes our roads safer and will support our economy as hundreds of thousands of new qualified drivers obtain licenses, buy cars and make insurance payments.”
It’s just common sense, and with Gov. Phil Murphy already having expressed his support for the idea, the state’s undocumented residents could soon be breathing a little easier.
“You have a lot of people driving that aren’t insured,” Sweeney continued. “And they’re going to be driving whether we like it or not. They’re on our roads. They’re working at different places. So it’s something that we’re going to have to address. We just got to figure out how we do it in the right way.”