In Massachusetts, Surprising Results in Fight to Deny Driver’s Licenses to Illegal Immigrants
Massachusetts voters perhaps aren’t as liberal as you think.
We’ll find out soon enough.
Bay State legislators, many of whom are liberal, this year passed 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 are fighting this law. This summer they launched a petition drive that, if successful, would give Massachusetts voters the right to keep the Work and Family Mobility Act or scrap it altogether. Voters would have their say in a special referendum this November.
By law, Fair and Secure MA members needed to collect 40,120 certified signatures before Aug. 24. They wanted to obtain at least 60,000 signatures as an insurance policy in case town clerks couldn’t read the signatures or some of the signers weren’t registered voters.
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The number of people who did sign surpassed the expectations of Maureen Maloney.
“We actually got more than 100,000 [signatures], but [only] 71,000 of those were certified by the secretary of state,” said Maloney, who helped spearhead the effort.
“That’s 30,000 more than was required to get on the ballot.”
Maloney lost her son to a drunken illegal immigrant 11 years ago. She guessed that she and other Fair and Secure MA members could have gotten 10,000 additional signatures — were it not for all the left-wing activists who tried to harass and intimidate them.
Maloney said last month that activists scribbled on and ripped petitions, flipped over tables, and, in one instance, pushed one of her volunteers up against a wall.
Another Fair and Secure MA member, Henry Barbaro, said last month that the state’s special interest groups are likely behind the effort to bestow more rights upon illegal immigrants.
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.
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Maloney told RVIVR last month that State Sen. Jamie Eldridge (D-Middlesex and Worcester) pushed for the Work and Family Mobility Act and that he obstructed many of her efforts to put it up for a referendum. Eldridge and members of his staff have not returned repeated requests for comment.
On Wednesday, Maloney said she believes a majority of voters will reject the law.
“Massachusetts is definitely a very blue state, but more than 60 percent of the voters are independent,” Maloney said.
“As far as the independents go, this effort resonated with them. At least the independents I have spoken to. They do not want illegal aliens to get drives licenses.”
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