Two events occurring the same week highlight the catastrophic tone deafness of a once culturally celebrated credentialed institutional progressivism. On August 12, an illegal alien who had been issued a commercial driver’s license in the state of California made a wildly illegal U-turn with his big rig on a Florida road. Three people in another vehicle died in a resulting crash. Two days later, on August 14, the ACLU’s Nevada branch sued the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles over its fears that the agency was aiding US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The dead bodies of three Floridians had barely been scooped off the blacktop in an incident that sparked national outrage and the ACLU unblinkingly hurried to defend the ability of illegal aliens to acquire driver’s licenses without hindrance.
“Exhibits the ACLU released [Aug. 15] show email exchanges between the [Nevada] DMV and ICE where someone with an ICE email address gave the DMV the names, date of birth and driver’s license numbers of three individuals they were looking for, asking the DMV to turn over photos and information related to the three individuals,” The Nevada Independent reports.
How horrifying. Imagine if this had been done with Harjinder Singh in California and he had been taken into ICE custody rather than allowed to drive a semi-truck throughout the continental US. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration interviewed Singh on August 14 as part of its investigation of the fatal Florida crash. It “administered an English Language Proficiency assessment in accordance with FMCSA guidance. The driver failed the assessment, providing correct responses to just 2 of 12 verbal questions and only accurately identifying 1 of 4 highway traffic signs,” an August 19 press release from the US Transportation Department reveals.
Brought to You By Your Local ACLU Branch
The ACLU has vigorously worked for years to codify into law a “right” of illegal aliens to have driver’s licenses in every state in America. “Invalidating out-of-state driver’s licenses for undocumented residents won’t make Wyoming’s roads any safer, but it will make the state more inhospitable to immigrants,” the Wyoming ACLU proclaimed in January while opposing a bill in the state legislature.
“The State of Florida is making it more difficult for recent immigrants and people who are undocumented to obtain state-issued IDs and driver’s licenses, which will inevitably harm our economy,” the ACLU of Florida wrote in a May 2 Facebook post. Three Floridians were killed by Singh’s insanely dangerous road maneuver.
ACLU chapters have played a leading role in urging state legislatures to pass laws allowing illegal aliens to acquire driver’s licenses. “Equal access to driver’s licenses will allow undocumented immigrants and individuals without access to documentation to prove their legal presence to lead fuller lives,” ACLU Senior Policy Counsel Kimberley Boudin stated of an effort to license illegals in Michigan in 2019. “These bills will make our roads safer, raise state revenue and reduce the risk that a routine traffic stop results in arrest, detention, or even unjustified deportation. This bill would help make Michigan a safer and more welcoming state for all.”
Surprisingly, Michigan has still not passed any such law despite repeated efforts. Even in strongly blue states, it is not a popular measure with local citizens.
Illegals Need Licenses: ‘It Becomes a Hassle’
Sob stories of illegal aliens unable to function in the country they are unlawfully inhabiting are front and center in these state-by-state campaigns. Big-box local newspaper The Detroit Free Press in December platformed the plight of an illegal alien mother of an epileptic child who finds it difficult to pick up prescription medication for her child without a driver’s license.
“It becomes a hassle,” Gema Lowe of Grand Rapids told the paper. “It’s a human right for people to travel from place A to place B… to be mobile, to do your daily things you have to do.”
Massachusetts is one of 19 states, along with the District of Columbia, that issues licenses to illegals. The same “think of the children” playbook was trotted out by the Bay State ACLU and its professional leftist allies in its successful effort to pass a new law in 2023.
The bill was called The Work and Family Mobility Act. This is how cultural progressives label an act inimical to the citizens of a community.
“Driving is essential to mobility in Massachusetts, especially outside Greater Boston. Public transit options are far too limited to enable most residents to get to work, take their children to the doctor, or buy groceries,” an undated fact page that appears to have been written during the first Trump administration posted on the Massachusetts ACLU website states.
The ACLU and a slew of listed leftist organizations and Massachusetts-based NGOs serving as signatories to the fact sheet specifically appealed to the notion of illegal aliens getting identified at traffic stops because they have no driver’s license as a reason for supporting the legislation.
“In the first two years of the [first] Trump administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests of people with no criminal convictions more than tripled. A major factor of this spike is a fivefold increase in arrests of immigrants who’ve been charged with an offense but not yet convicted. The most common charges are traffic offenses. By making driver’s licenses available to all, regardless of immigration status, we can reduce the devastating impact of Trump’s deportation agenda on Massachusetts families.”
ACLU of Massachusetts now boasts of its triumph.
“After 20 years of advocacy, the ACLU helped to pass a historic bill permitting all qualified drivers to apply for a license, regardless of immigration status. Shortly thereafter, we defeated an effort to repeal the law at the ballot box,” a “Know Your Rights” page on the group’s website exclaims.
Throughout, from Wyoming to Michigan to Massachusetts, the ACLU makes sure to stress all must pass a driver’s license test. The entire nation saw how stringent that can be. California granted Harjinder Singh a commercial license, which is supposed to be even tougher to get than a standard driver’s license, and he couldn’t even identify common road signs.
But the cultural winds are shifting against the institutional organizations that have so grievously betrayed American citizens at the most fundamental levels for some three decades now. It’s hard to get more basic than the act of driving down the street without undue fear one may be killed by a reckless driver. How many more Americans will have to die before serious consequences arise for the credentialed elitists at the ACLU?
