In Barry Roth’s guest column opposing drivers’ licenses for immigrants without legal status (“Work and Family Mobility Act incentivizes unauthorized immigration,” Oct. 24), there is at least one glaring factual error that must be corrected. He writes that educating the children of migrants places a financial burden on legal residents. That argument makes the false factual assumption that migrants do not pay taxes or contribute to local economies. The opposite is true. All residents regardless of legal status pay taxes including sales tax, income tax, Social Security and Medicare taxes (if employed), real estate taxes as owners or renters (indirectly through their landlord), excise taxes if they own a vehicle, etc. The only tax or fee that residents without legal status are not currently paying is the driver’s license fee, and the new law corrects that. In addition, as a matter of law, migrants are prohibited by law from receiving Social Security benefits and Medicare benefits even though they pay those taxes if they are employed on the books. Mainstreaming immigrants by allowing them driver’s licenses will likely increase tax revenues because it will reduce their dependence upon the underground economy, and make them less vulnerable to exploitation by unscrupulous employers and landlords.
John Ziv
Granby