The Massachusetts state senate passed a law allowing illegal immigrants to have their driver’s license.
The document passed with a considerable majority. 32 senators voted in favor and 8 against. A number sufficient to avoid the veto of the Republican governor Charlie Becker who had not hidden his intention to block this project.
This is the last step necessary for the document to be published in the official gazette of the State of Massachusetts. Last February, 120 deputies approved the bill while 36 rejected it.
Under the new law, anyone who can provide identification and prove residency in the state of Massachusetts is eligible to obtain a driver’s license regardless of immigration status.
To obtain a driver’s license, applicants must present two pieces of identification. This document can be a valid passport or any other unexpired document issued by a consular service.
After the enactment of the document, Massachusetts will become the 16th state to grant undocumented immigrants the right to obtain a driver’s license. The District of Columbia had also previously passed this measure.
Massachusetts is known as a sanctuary for illegal immigrants in the United States. More than one million undocumented immigrants live in this heavily Democratic state.
Haitian immigrants are the fifth largest migrant community in the state after Chinese, Dominicans, Indians, and Brazilians. The Portuguese are sixth, according to statistics from The Immigrant Learning Center.