The Pew Research Center found New Jersey is in the top five states that attract the most immigrants. Legislation working its way through the Assembly would give the undocumented driving privileges. Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-25) told NJTV News Anchor Mary Alice Williams he does not believe that if undocumented residents were given driving privileges, that it would make the roads any safer, even if they have insurance.
“Having insurance doesn’t make the roads any safer either and ultimately I think that the question that we have to answer as a society is are we going to extend sort of a welcome mat for people who came here illegally? Are we going to insist that they go back where they belong?” asked Carroll.
Although he does not agree with giving driving privileges to the undocumented, Carroll said that he does agree with the DREAM Act, which lets undocumented students in good standing attend college, to an extent. He explained that he has spoken with some students that are behind the DREAM Act and they are Americans in all but name. Carroll says that he believes an exception should be made and that he would agree to give them citizenship if they served in the military.
As for the driving privileges card, Carroll said that one aspect of the bill is problematic. He said that if names are going to be put into a database for the driving privileges, it would make it easy for the government to find people in the country illegally and send them back to their country of origin.
“With one aspect of the bill that’s always problematic and I would be kind of fearful if I were here and wanted to stay here is that promises the government makes are not the kind of things you can really rely upon necessarily and if you’re part of a database that says you’re here illegally it should be relatively easy to find you and send you home if that’s what the government eventually decides it wants to do,” said Carroll.
Similar bills have gone through the legislature since 2006 but have yet to pass. According to Carroll, the current bill sponsored by Assemblywoman Annette Quijano is similar to bills from the past.
“I think this one is probably very similar in a lot of respects to the ones that came before,” Carroll said. “But if you ever tried to get a driver’s license in New Jersey, you know it’s kind of a belly ache and this one for example specifically says you can’t use this particular card for ID as anything other than a driver’s license. And again it strikes me that if you’re relying upon foreign documents that an American citizen wouldn’t have the right to use, that’s problematic in the extreme.”
Carroll said that the bill has not changed since it was introduced.
Related: NJ Policy Perspective President: Driving Privileges for Undocumented Would Make Roads Safer