On Tuesday, August 6th, a group of about 30 constituents of Representative William Straus met at the Mattapoisett Public Library to discuss the Work and Family Mobility Act. Nicky Osborne and Diana Painter (chairperson of the Fairhaven Democratic Committee) organized the meeting. This bill would allow undocumented immigrants to obtain a driver\u2019s license, which they currently cannot do. Rep. Straus is the chairman of the Joint Committee on Transportation that has the responsibility for hearing the bill and sending it onto the full legislature for a vote. People in the audience spoke passionately about the importance of having a driver\u2019s license not only to meet their basic necessities, but also for getting to ICE appointments so that they can continue along their pathway to citizenship. Rep. Straus expressed concern about the fact that data from the Mass. Driver\u2019s License could end up in the hands of the federal government. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
People who are impacted by not having a driver\u2019s license said that they are very willing to take the risk. \u201cLet us decide if we want to get a driver\u2019s license. Don\u2019t decide for us. We pay taxes, too, and want this basic right,\u201d said one person in the audience. An Excel spreadsheet was presented that showed the number of drivers and the number of undocumented immigrants who have been driven to their immigration-related appointments. The figures were impressive to all. Rep. Straus agreed that undocumented immigrants should have a right to get a driver\u2019s license, but he again expressed concern about the data that would be available to the federal government. He said he was looking at other states that have passed similar laws to find out if they have seen an increase in the number of deportation arrests of undocumented immigrants since their laws were passed. Rep. Straus said that he will conduct a hearing in September, assuming that his co-chair agrees. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Tuesday, August 6th, a group of about 30 constituents of Representative William Straus met at the Mattapoisett Public Library to discuss the Work and Family Mobility Act. Nicky Osborne and Diana Painter (chairperson of the Fairhaven Democratic Committee) organized the meeting. This bill would…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15999,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[88,82],"tags":[90,91],"class_list":["post-15997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-immigration","category-south-coast","tag-immigration","tag-south-coast"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t