Emily Achtenberg of JP Progressives’s Immigrants Rights Action Group penned a letter to the editor to the Globe about the need to pass the Work and Family Mobility Act:
Marcela García is right to wonder whether President Biden’s proposed federal immigration reform promises, as the headline of her column puts it, “a new day, or an old story, for the undocumented” (Opinion, Feb. 2). Here in Massachusetts, we should be concerned, too, about our elected state officials’ failure to protect our undocumented neighbors.
Last year, the proposed Work and Family Mobility Act, which would authorize driver’s licenses for undocumented residents, failed to pass the state Legislature after being reported out of committee for the first time in 15 years. The bill received widespread support but was opposed by Governor Charlie Baker.
As the pandemic has revealed, undocumented immigrants make up a significant portion of the essential workforce, the people who keep our economy going and our families safe while suffering a disproportionate share of COVID-19′s burdens. Now more than ever, households need the ability to drive in order to gain access to medical care, testing, and vaccines; grocery shopping and food distribution; jobs; and schools. Public transportation and ridesharing options are unacceptably risky as well as severely curtailed.
The Work and Family Mobility Act has just been refiled in the Legislature, and it deserves our active support. Fifteen states, including Vermont, New York, Connecticut, Maryland, and Delaware, plus the District of Columbia have legalized immigrant driving. Let’s catch up in Massachusetts.
