On Monday, the New Jersey Assembly voted to extend driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. Given the importance of driver’s licenses for voting, this seems a dangerous step toward ushering illegal immigrants to the polls.
The legislation, A4743/S3229, would create a two-license system in the state. While the REAL ID federal license would only be open to citizens, non-citizens would be able to acquire a standard license for driving and identification purposes.
The ACLU of New Jersey celebrated the vote on Monday afternoon. “BREAKING: NJ Assembly votes YES to the bill to expand driver’s license access for all, regardless of immigration status, housing, or gender identity,” the activist group tweeted.
BREAKING: NJ Assembly votes YES to the bill to expand driver’s license access for all, regardless of immigration status, housing, or gender identity!
What’s next? The Senate is slated to cast their votes this afternoon— stay tuned. https://t.co/LrlpzxBufQ
— ACLU of New Jersey (@ACLUNJ) December 16, 2019
A driver’s license is essential in most parts of America, but extending driver’s licenses to illegal aliens would set a dangerous precedent. These people do not reside in the country legally; they are flaunting their disrespect of American law and insulting the millions of immigrants who enter the country legally and work hard to obtain their citizenship.
In order to obtain a driver’s license, illegal immigrants should first acquire legal status. American immigration law needs reform, but that is not a reason to encourage lawlessness.
Driver’s licenses are valuable for all sorts of purposes — proof of age for purchasing alcohol, proof of identity at movie theaters and airports, and proof of residency for voting. It may seem magnanimous to extend licenses to illegal immigrants, but doing so only encourages lawlessness and opens the floodgates for abuse.
New Jersey citizens should speak up against this dangerous law, and prevent it from passing the state Senate and getting signed by the governor. Sadly, the heavily-Democratic senate and Gov. Phil Murphy seem likely to support this dangerous bill.
Sadly, this is not an isolated incident. All ten Democrats in the second round of the first Democratic presidential debate back in July raised their hands, pledging to provide health insurance to illegal immigrants.
Democrats are rushing headlong into assaults on the rule of law in a clear attempt to pander to illegals, hoping a horde of new voters will give them permanent majorities. Meanwhile, the millions of legal immigrants who worked hard to play by the rules are left wondering why they bothered. It’s perverse.
Follow Tyler O’Neil, the author of this article, on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.
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