Maine is being singled out by the federal government in being forced to pass hasty, anti-immigrant legislation in an election year.
· Every other state in the country was given a waiver from the REAL ID program.
· Even Hawaii, which does not require legal status for the driver license and passed legislation opposing the REAL ID was given a waiver. 5 other states do not have the legal status requirement yet all received waivers.
· Montana and South Carolina, who did not ask for REAL ID waivers and reaffirmed their objections to the program, were given waivers.
LD 2309 will make us less secure.
· LD 2309 disregards the national debate about whether pushing the undocumented immigrants further into the shadows makes us less safe. Security experts like Margaret Stock, associate professor of law at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point have noted that, “Refusing to give driver licenses to illegal immigrants means taking [them] out of the largest law enforcement database in the country. Thus, denial of licenses is a policy prescription that hampers law enforcement far more than it enhances it.”
· Utah and New Mexico used to have legal status requirements for driver licenses but for public safety, cost and human rights reasons rescinded their policies in 1999 and 2003 respectively. Since then, the number of unlicensed and uninsured has dropped dramatically, increasing traffic safety in those states.
· Driver license restrictions cause immigrants to avoid contact with state and local law enforcement, even when they are victims of or witnesses to crimes. This decreases community trust and undermines efforts to fight crime and save lives.
LD 2309 raises taxes and will cost the state millions of dollars.
· LD 2039 requires new BMV software, additional staffing, as well as the cost charged by the federal government to the state to participate in SAVE immigration status computer verification system..
· LD 2039 includes a $6 tax on the license.
· Experience across the country has shown that each element of LD 2309 alone has cost other states over $1 million to implement.
· Our precious tax dollars are better spent on commonsense security measures like internal anti-fraud measures and anti-counterfeit measures.
LD 2309 undermines the Constitutional principles of due process and equal protection under the law.
· LD 2309 will drive undocumented immigrants further into the shadows of our state and will also lead to denials of licenses to legal immigrants and to U.S. citizen Mainers from border counties who were born in Canada.
· Forcing Mainers to prove legal status will lead to racial profiling.
· Treating others with dignity, fairness, and respect for human rights is a matter of preserving our own moral compass as Maine people.
For a financial analysis of REAL ID, click here.