https://themilitant.com/2019/03/23/new-york-protests-demand-govt-give-immigrants-drivers-licenses/
New York protests demand gov’t give immigrants driver’s licenses
By Seth Galinsky
Vol. 83/No. 13
April 1, 2019
Protest in Riverhead, Long Island March 12, part of actions in New York,
New Jersey and other states demanding driver’s licenses for immigrants,
a move that would strengthen working class.
Militant/Peter Thierjung
Protest in Riverhead, Long Island March 12, part of actions in New York,
New Jersey and other states demanding driver’s licenses for immigrants,
a move that would strengthen working class.
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — “What do we want? Driver’s licenses. Why do we want
them? To drive without fear!” some 170 people chanted in English and
Spanish as they marched through this town of 14,000 March 12.
The marchers were overwhelmingly immigrants from Mexico and Latin
America, including construction workers, landscapers, cooks, house
painters and workers from area fruit and vegetable farms, grape
vineyards and nurseries.
They are demanding the New York legislature pass a law to allow
immigrants without documents the government recognizes to get driver’s
licenses. The action was organized by a coalition that includes SEPA
Mujer, Rural and Migrant Ministry and other church, immigrant rights and
civil liberties groups.
A similar demonstration of nearly 1,000 took place in Albany the same
day. There are hundreds of thousands of undocumented workers in the state.
This correspondent, Socialist Workers Party candidate for New York City
Public Advocate, joined in, backing the fight for driver’s licenses and
calling for amnesty for all undocumented workers in the U.S.
This is not a small question for working people, especially in small
towns and rural areas where there is little public transportation. All
workers who don’t have licenses, if stopped by police, face a fine of up
to $300, impoundment of their car and even jail time, as well as steep
towing and “storage fees.” Immigrant workers face an added risk —
possible deportation.
“A friend picks me up to go to work every day,” one farmworker who
didn’t want to give her name, told the Militant. “To get groceries I
have to take a taxi and that can cost $60.”
Diana, a stay-at-home mom who asked that we only use her first name,
said the first time her husband was stopped by cops was when she was in
the hospital during the birth of one of her children. “Between the fines
and the charge for getting the car out of impoundment it was over $800,”
she said. Diana was born in the United States, but her husband was born
in Ecuador. They have been married more than a decade and their children
were born here.
After her husband was stopped a second time, she quit her job. “I drive
my husband to work. Then I take the kids to school. Then later in the
day I pick him up from work and the kids from school,” she said. “If he
could get a license I could go back to work. It would make a big
difference in our lives.”
A bill before the state legislature would create a special license —
which wouldn’t be legal for anything but driving — that immigrants
without a social security number could get. It has the backing of dozens
of state assemblymen and senators. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said that if
the bill passes he will sign it, but has done nothing to promote it.
Since at least 2017 the New York State Farm Bureau, which organizes many
capitalist farmers, has backed similar legislation. These farmers are
worried about a shortage of farm labor at the wages they pay.
Several municipal governments and officials around the state are backing
the measure, including the New York City Council, Brooklyn District
Attorney Eric Gonzalez and Riverhead Police Chief David Hegermiller.
Democratic Party presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. Kirsten
Gillibrand, who has opposed giving immigrants driver’s licenses for most
of her political career, now backs this bill.
But support is far from universal. A bipartisan committee of the Oswego
County legislature voted in January to oppose the measure. “New York
State presently suspends or revokes driver’s licenses for various
illegal acts, including nonpayment of child support, delinquent taxes
and refusal to submit to a breath test, yet this act would reward
illegal entry into the United States with a driver’s license,” the
committee resolution said.
In interests of working class
Many U.S.-born workers would welcome granting licenses to undocumented
workers. Winning this would widen the door to eliminating other
anti-working-class restrictions on licenses, like those mentioned in the
Oswego resolution.
And it would break down barriers between native-born and immigrant
workers and help unify the working class in fighting attacks from the
bosses and their government.
Twelve states and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico already allow
undocumented immigrants to obtain a driver’s license.
Victor Cortez, a farmworker near Rochester who has lived in the U.S. for
15 years, told the protest in Albany that he had to wait two days to get
someone to take him to the doctor after he was injured on the job
because he didn’t have a license.
“We’re not asking for favors,” he told the crowd. “We are just asking
for a bit of what we give to this state.”
In This Issue
Front Page Articles •No to attacks on Muslims, mosques in New Zealand!
•Solidarity with victims of anti-Muslim killings
•Boeing bosses’ drive for profit leads to deadly plane crashes
•SWP takes campaign to small towns, rural areas
•New York protests demand gov’t give immigrants driver’s licenses
•Syrian gov’t, Moscow step up strikes on opposition forces in Idlib province
Feature Articles •Long view of history on display at Iraqi museum
Also In This Issue •Algerian protesters say, ‘We need to get rid of the
system’
•Cuba: ‘We will defend our revolution, no matter what’
•Kentucky teachers fight state moves against union, pensions
On the Picket Line •Locked out Quebec aluminum workers reject bosses’
ultimatum
•Chicago Symphony Orchestra players strike to defend pensions
Books of the Month •‘No imperialist regime can ever conduct a just war’
25, 50 and 75 years ago
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