Massachusetts Special Interest Groups Are on WHOSE Side?

August 22, 2022 11:59 am

(Writer’s Note: This is the third part of a three-part series about a new Massachusetts law that enables illegal immigrants to have driver’s licenses. Part One is available here, while Part Two is available here)

This year, Massachusetts legislators passed a bill into law, the Work and Family Mobility Act, which gives illegal aliens the right to obtain their own driver’s licenses.

But members of a group called Fair and Secure MA launched a petition drive to fight it. If members of that group gather 40,000 signatures, then Massachusetts voters will decide in a special referendum this November whether to keep or scrap that law. As people try to sign the petition, left-wing activists statewide have interfered — and aggressively so.

That’s one hurdle, which Fair and Secure MA members are confident they can overcome. But what hurdles await if and after they gather the required 40,000 signatures? Members said that’s easy. They expect fierce resistance from Massachusetts’ media and political establishments.

“Once we get the required number of signatures going into the fall, prior to the general election, I am sure they will have TV ads and go full out trying to get voters to vote in favor of continuing the driver’s license for illegal aliens,” said Maureen Maloney, whose son was killed by an illegal immigrant.

Another Fair and Secure MA member, Henry Barbaro, said he expects “a media storm from the left.”

“They have the infrastructure and control of information out there,” Barbaro said.

“If we meet this signature threshold, then there will be a massive campaign to convince voters that this law is just and legal and helps the downtrodden illegal immigrant drive to work, which is not legal and probably taking the wage of an American worker.”

Barbaro went on to say that Massachusetts’ media outlets have reported this story extensively, but he also said their reporting is biased and favors illegal immigrants.

“I wish the out-of-state media would report more on the victims of illegal immigration, which they don’t. They talk about the downtrodden illegal looking to improve their life, but they don’t talk about the plight of the low-wage worker who is having their wages depressed further because of competition from illegal immigrants,” Barbaro said.

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“They don’t talk as much about the impact to taxpayers as well and whether illegal immigrants do or do not pay taxes. The great majority do not cover the tax burden of schooling and everything else that are presented by illegal immigrants.”

Barbaro said he doesn’t want to sound conspiratorial, but he believes the people who want to bestow more rights upon illegal immigrants belong to the state’s special interest groups. In January, the head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, citing a workforce shortage, called for the doubling of immigrants into the United States, although she referred to legal immigrants. Four years ago, the Chamber asked Congress to grant legal status to a million illegal immigrants.

Maloney told RVIVR last week that State Sen. Jamie Eldridge (D-Middlesex and Worcester) pushed for the Work and Family Mobility Act and that he obstructs many of her efforts to put it up for a referendum. Eldridge and members of his staff have not returned repeated requests for comment.

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