A bill that would allow undocumented residents driving privileges is working its way through an Assembly committee. The group New Jersey Policy Perspective claims that letting as many as half a million undocumented people drive legally would make the roads safer by reducing the number of uninsured and that it would integrate them more fully into their communities. NJ Policy Perspective President Gordon MacInnes told NJTV News Anchor Mary Alice Williams that allowing undocumented residents to have driving privileges would create safety on the roads.
“Why would you want a system where you have 550,000 residents of this state, our neighbors who are undocumented, why would you not want them to be tested if they know the rules of the road?” asked MacInnes. “That they’re confident drivers in the same way that everybody else is tested and I think that burden is really on people who oppose this notion.”
Gayle Kesselman of New Jersey Citizens for Immigration Control disagrees. She said, “Driving cards would not make them buy insurance and will help them take American jobs away from Americans.” MaccInnes said that New Jersey has been a magnet for striving and enterprising immigrants, including some that are undocumented. He said that they are in the country because they want a safe environment.
Currently the bill is still in the amendment phase and will receive some changes before it gets out of committee. As the bill currently stands, undocumented residents would not receive a driver’s license but a driving privilege card. MacInnes said that allowing undocumented residents to receive a driving privilege card would help the relationship between law enforcement and undocumented drivers because it would remove the fear of driving illegally in the state.
“It would give the undocumented resident a comfort that they can deal directly with law enforcement that they are allowed to be behind the wheel and that it would improve relations with law enforcement,” said MacInnes.
According to MacInnes, the bill would need to include a provision that would not permit an automatic referral to Homeland Security.
Similar bills have been introduced in the legislature since 2006, but MacInnes said that he is not familiar with what previous bills may have looked like. He also said that about 11 states and the District of Columbia have already passed bills allowing undocumented residents to have driving privileges.
“So there’s 11 states plus the District that have already enacted legislation to do this and it makes a lot of sense,” said MacInnes. “This is really common sense and I think that people who oppose it really don’t have an alternative and they are saying that they don’t have confidence in our system for licensing drivers — which requires that you know the rules of the road, that you show that you are a competent driver.”
Whether he is concerned about the undocumented residents being put into a database that could be scanned, MacInnes said that a protection against it would have to be built into the legislation and that it would not result in the wholesale sharing of information.
Related: Asm. Carroll: Allowing Driving Privileges for Undocumented Will Not Make Roads Safer