Gov. Whitmer Expresses Support for Driver’s Licenses for Illegal Immigrants

 

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer recently came out in support of driver’s licenses for illegal aliens in Michigan.

Activist group Movimiento Cosecha Michigan posted a short video interview with Whitmer during July’s Democratic debates in Detroit.

In response to a direct question about Driver Licenses for illegal immigrants, Whitmer said, “We need to ensure that everyone’s got a path to get a license so that they’ve got identification;” adding:

That’s something that’s important to me, it’s important to our economy, and it’s important to the people of Michigan.

Fortunately, we’ve got a Secretary of State and an Attorney General who also, I know, feel the same way.

According the Detroit Free Press, Michigan passed legislation to ban the practice of providing driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants in 2008 after Attorney General Mike Cox, a Republican, issued a formal opinion the year before. Cox’s opinion reversed a 1995 opinion from former Attorney General Frank Kelley, a Democrat.

Some see expanding state benefits to illegals as a way to ensure population numbers allow Michigan to retain its 14th Congressional District seat after the 2020 census, according to a Bridge MI report during the 2018 Democratic primary race.

The report quoted former gubernatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s pledge to not spend a dime of state taxpayer resources on enforcing federal immigration policy.

“We’ve also got to make sure that in this state we are not discriminating by documentation status,” he said. “Now if you’re undocumented, you don’t get access to a driver’s license, so you’re stuck. You don’t get access to a lot of the basic things the state offers everybody else. And I think that’s ridiculous, so I think we’ve got to stop discriminating that way.”

On July 15, Kalamazoo commissioners unanimously passed a resolution to allow undocumented immigrants to obtain a driver’s license.

“As you may know, not having a license is one of the main reasons many undocumented people get deported,” a 14-year-old commented on the resolution, according to Fox 17, which also reported that all who addressed the commissioners supported the resolution.

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Abigail Nobel is a reporter for The Michigan Star.
Photo “Supporters for Illegal Immigrants Getting Licenses” by Cosecha Michigan.