There have been many guest columns in the Gazette in support of the Work and Family Mobility Act (HB4805), and Question 4, which asks voters to uphold a law that would allow undocumented immigrants the right to obtain a Massachusetts driver’s license. Collectively those pieces address the specifics of the law which are on the ballot and the closely related issue of immigration.
I attempt here to provide some balance by first encapsulating arguments made in favor of Question 4 and indirectly in favor of increased immigration. I follow with an opposing viewpoint.
This nation has always been a country of immigrants unlike other countries and this diversity is our strength.
We have a diverse population which has prospered because of a common respect for the law. Incentivizing law breaking, by rewarding illegal entry, undermines that crucial shared moral value.
The United States is a huge country and our economy will benefit by having immigrants to fill unfilled jobs, rejuvenate our aging population and grow our gross domestic product.
The idea that we can continue to add more and more people to grow our economy is a Ponzi scheme. It makes no consideration for such things as finite natural resources, destruction of habitat, shortages of housing, traffic jams and the decreasing enjoyment of life.
Undocumented immigrants, through no fault of their own, come here desperate and struggling to lift themselves and their families up from poverty or persecution or both.
I’ve worked with people online from all over the world. Many of them would like to obtain U.S. citizenship; but they apply honestly. It is not easy and it takes time but they do so. Undocumented immigrants jump ahead of them and make it harder for legal immigrants to find passage here.
Having a driver’s license is a right.
Driver licenses are not citizen rights but a privilege. American citizens have their licenses taken away fairly or not, all the time.
It will be good to encourage people to get driver’s licenses and auto insurance. By requiring drivers to have licenses it will increase the number who have demonstrated their ability to drive safely.
The assumption is made that being able to obtain a license means those who still would not qualify will stop driving. If someone is willing to cross into another country illegally, they will not stop driving simply because they cannot afford automobile insurance or don’t pass a driving test for whatever reason. If there is a bad accident they can simply disappear.
There are safeguards in place to see that driver’s licenses will not be abused for voting or collecting social benefits.
I haven’t looked into whether or not a driver’s license will lead to fraudulent voting, but I do know that undocumented immigrants already benefit directly and indirectly from taxpayer subsidization. According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, there are already 236,000 undocumented people living in Massachusetts. They have roughly 80,000 U.S. born children. These households add 68,000 students to local schools. The average cost to Bay Staters is $8,487 per illegal student. This leaves the average taxpayer with a tax burden of $783 per household for each illegal immigrant.
There are many citizens in this state already who live lives of quiet desperation and could use assistance. Many have thanked me for speaking up.
Those opposed to HB4805 are made up of bigots, racists and xenophobes, the majority of whom simply are opposed to people coming in who are different from them (MAGAs).
Until recently I was a lifelong Democrat. I found that when I went to one of our local Northampton supermarkets to gather signatures for this ballot, the management refused to allow me to despite the activity being protected by the Massachusetts Constitution.
The comments I received were vile and there were physical threats. To the extent proponents would listen to my perspective my reasons were dismissed out of hand as they insisted I was only motivated by bigotry, racism and xenophobia.
When the country was formed in 1790 there were about 4 million people and voters were guaranteed at least one U.S. House representative for every 30,000 people by the Constitution, which was considered necessary for democracy to work. If the original ratio of one representative for every 30,000 citizens in the House of Representatives remained; it would now have 10,000 members; therefore, it was limited by Congress to 435. One representative for close to every million people.
That is because our population has passed 300 million people and 120 million of that number were added in just the last 30 years, owing mostly to immigration.
Contrary to the headlines, growing population, not climate change, is the underlying reason millions of poor people are fleeing here. Letting undocumented immigrants in has done little to ease the problems in their country of origin but has contributed significantly to our growing divisions and balkanization. We need to help them confront those issues at the source.
Both sides might agree, HB4805 is as much about immigration as driver’s licenses. I, however, believe it incentivizes unauthorized immigration and perpetuates a myth that population plays no role in issues we are confronting. I am all for helping but it requires facing reality if we are to bequeath future generations a wondrous world.
Barry Roth lives in Northampton.