BOSTON —On Friday, the Driving Families Forward coalition filed paperwork with the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance to support the state’s new driver’s license law by launching the Vote YES for Work and Family Mobility committee. On Thursday, June 9, The Work and Family Mobility Act became state law when the Massachusetts Senate followed the House of Representatives in an overwhelming vote to override Governor Charlie Baker’s veto. A group opposed to the law begun an attempt to repeal it through a ballot initiative, and proponents are responding to protect the will of Massachusetts voters as it has already been expressed by the vast majority of their elected state legislators. If the repeal effort succeeds in putting a question on the ballot, a yes vote would ensure the law’s continued enactment, so that all qualified Massachusetts residents, regardless of immigration status, would be able to apply for a standard state driver’s license when the law comes into full effect on July 1, 2023.
The following statement may be credited to 32BJ SEIU Executive Vice President Roxana Rivera and Brazilian Worker Center Executive Director Lenita Reason, the leaders of the co-chairing organizations in Driving Families Forward, a coalition of over 270 organizations that support the law.
“Without question, the Work and Family Mobility Act will make our roads safer, our communities more secure, our public health policies stronger and our economy more vibrant, simply by allowing all qualified residents to get a driver’s license so they can safely get to work, school, and the grocery store. It will also transform the lives of tens of thousands of immigrants, many of whom were essential workers who supported all of us through the pandemic. Our coalition includes healthcare, community, labor, faith, civil rights, business and other groups from across the state, and we worked collaboratively to shape a thoroughly safe and workable law whose passage was supported by the immigrant community as well as by the majority of Massachusetts sheriffs and district attorneys, the unanimous vote of the Massachusetts Major Cities Chiefs of Police Association, the state attorney general, and over three quarters of Massachusetts’ state senators and representatives. We are proud to file the necessary paperwork to defend this historic achievement with a strong YES vote to keep the law in place, to ensure Massachusetts will not go backwards on its support for immigrant dignity and safer roads for everyone.”
The State House’s historic override vote made Massachusetts the 17th state, plus the District of Columbia, to pass a law to allow undocumented immigrants to obtain driving privileges. Massachusetts’ neighbors New York, Connecticut, and Vermont have already passed such laws, and Rhode Island will become the 18th state to do so when Governor Dan McKee, a supporter, signs a driver’s license bill passed by the state legislature last week.
Visit http://drivingma.org, @DrivingFamiliesForward on Facebook, and @DrivingMA4ward on Twitter.
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Over 270 businesses and organizations in Driving Families Forward endorse the Work and Family Mobility Act:
ACLU Massachusetts
ADL New England
AFL-CIO
Alliance for Business Leadership
American Friends Service Committee Northeast Regional Office
Anti-Defamation League
Asian American Resource Workshop
Berkshire Interfaith Organizing
Black Ministerial Alliance
The Boston Foundation
Brazilian Women’s Group
Brazilian Workers Center
Business Innovation Center
Cambridge Police Department
Cape Ann Local Action Network
Cape Cod Coalition for Safe Communities
Cape Verdean Association of Boston
Catholic Charities
Catholic Social Services of Fall River
Center to Support Immigrant Organizing (CSIO)
Centro Comunitario de los Trabajadores
Centro Presente
Coalition for Social Justice
Community Economic Development Center
Congress Insurance
Dominican Development Center, Inc.
Episcopal City Mission
Essex County Community Organization
Executive Committee of the Mattapoisett Democratic Committee
Field First, LLC
Gomez & Palumbo, LLC
Greater Andover Indivisible
Greater Haverhill Indivisible
Green-Rainbow Party
Haitian Comm. Faith Leader
Health and Law Immigrant Solidarity Network
Immigrants’ Assistance Center, Inc.
Indivisble Mystic Valley
INDIVISIBLE: Nantucket
Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action
Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston
Justice at Work
Justice Center of Southeast MA
La Comunidad, Inc.
Latinos unidos en Massachusetts
League of Women Voters – MA
Main Street Alliance
Mass Business Immigration Coalition
Mass Interfaith Worker Justice
Massa Viana Law
Massachusetts Jobs With Justice
MassBudget
Mattapoisett Democratic Committee
MCAN
Merrimack Valley Project
MIRA Coalition
Movimiento Cosecha
National Association of Social Workers
New England Bangladeshi American Foundation Inc
New England Justice for Our Neighbors
North Parish of North Andover UU Racial Justice Team
Open Door Immigration Services
Parenting Journey
Pioneer Valley Interfaith Refugee Action Group
Pioneer Valley Project
Pioneer Valley Workers Center
Progressive Democrats of Mass.
Progressive Massachusetts
Rosie’s Place
Salem Chamber of Commerce
Salem No Place for Hate
SEIU 32BJ
SEIU 509
SEIU 1199
SEIU Massachusetts State Council
Solidarity Lowell
Student Immigrant Movement
Temple Anshe Amunim
The Irish International Immigrant Center
The Paulist Center Immigrant Advocacy Group
The Welcome Project
TPS Committee
Unitarian Universalist Mass Action
Unitarian-Universalist Society of Fairhaven
United Interfaith Action of Southeastern Massachusetts
United Workers Association, Region 9a
Western MA Jobs with Justice
Western Mass Area Labor Federation
Women Encouraging Empowerment
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With over 175,000 members in 11 states and Washington DC, including 20,000 in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, 32BJ SEIU is the largest property services union in the country.