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CLT UPDATE
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
Say NO to driver's licenses for illegals
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Gov. Charlie Baker has said over and over again
that he’s opposed to giving driver’s licenses to illegal aliens and
now he finally has a chance to prove it.
He can veto the illegal-alien driver’s license
handout in the new state budget.
Hey, the illegal-alien-welfare-industrial complex
says all of us American citizens who work for a living are
overreacting to the underhanded provision they snuck into the new
budget in the dead of night last week. If they’re telling the truth,
it shouldn’t be a problem for the governor to strike the giveaway
language, should it?
If you want to tell the governor whether you
think illegal aliens should be allowed to get driver’s licenses, his
telephone number is 617-725-4005.
Leave him a message. It’s easy. You don’t even
have to press “2” for English.
The Boston Herald
Sunday, July 3, 2016
It's Gov. Charlie Baker's chance to block licenses for illegals
By Howie Carr
A vaguely worded provision tucked into the $39.1
billion budget and passed at the 11th hour this week is setting off
alarms over the possibility the state will issue driver’s licenses
to illegal immigrants.
The issue centers on the state’s mandate to meet
standards under federal law passed in 2005, which ramps up the
qualifications for residents to get a state driver’s license and is
intended to prevent terrorists from using the IDs to enter federal
buildings or board planes. The state has been working under a waiver
from issuing so-called Real ID licenses, but that expires in
October.
The debate sprang into budget discussions this
week when language, introduced by state Sen. Thomas McGee, was
included, requiring people to have a “lawful presence” in the U.S.
to get either a federally compliant Real ID license or a
standard-issue Massachusetts driver’s license.
The “lawful presence” standard, set under federal
law, covers U.S. citizens, but also immigrants who fall under a
range of categories, including those who have been admitted for
temporary residence in the U.S., granted asylum, or those with
pending or approved temporary protected status....
Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration
Studies — a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that backs stricter
immigration laws — said the law gives discretion to the registrar of
the Registry of Motor Vehicles in issuing a Massachusetts license.
“It’s clearly set up to provide a pathway to a
license for illegal immigrants,” Vaughan said.
The Boston Herald
Saturday, July 2, 2016
Concerns mount over possibility state will give illegals licenses
Members of the House roared in approval
Thursday afternoon as Speaker Robert DeLeo opened a roll call,
ending what had been a roughly 45-minute debate on the $39.1
billion fiscal 2017 budget.
Rep. James Lyons, an Andover Republican, had
extended the brief discussion by arguing that spending cuts
should be increased to account for shrinking revenue estimates
and protections should be added to the legislation to ensure
that those in the country illegally cannot be granted licenses
by the registrar of motor vehicles....
Lyons, however, disagreed with the amount of
spending, a budget rider granting additional reprieve to
municipal retirees' health care costs, and the Andover
Republican suggested money could be freed up if the state didn't
expend resources on "people who are not legally here."
Democrats rebuffed Lyons, interrupting to ask
if he would yield the floor, asserting that Massachusetts is
welcoming to all people, and defending the budget.
"Many of us believe that this is a state that
welcomes everyone," said Rep. Ruth Balser, a Newton Democrat.
She said, "I defy anyone to say there are people who don't have
a right to live with us in this great state of Massachusetts."
"We should not be spending our tax dollars to
people who live in this state who do not have a legal right to
be here, and I stand by that comment," Lyons said.
State House News Service
Thursday, June 30, 2016
Rep riles colleagues during brief debate on $39.15 Bil budget
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Chip Faulkner's CLT
Commentary
CLT ALERT!
The Legislature passed the FY 2017 budget last
Thursday; it’s now on the Governor’s desk. Unfortunately this budget
contains a provision that makes it easier for Massachusetts driver’s
licenses to be issued to illegal aliens.
The language allows the Registrar of Motor
Vehicles to issue a driver’s license to an applicant who provides
documentation and demonstrates qualifications "acceptable to the
registrar."
The Registrar of Motor Vehicles should not be
given authority over licensing qualifications; this is a stealth
ploy to create a path to licenses for illegal aliens. Governor Baker
should veto this provision and send it back to the Legislature.
Call Governor Baker at the Statehouse and ask him
to line-item veto this part of the budget with the loophole allowing
illegals to obtain driver’s licenses. His office's number is
617-725-4005.
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Chip Faulkner |
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The Boston Herald
Sunday, July 3, 2016
It's Gov. Charlie Baker's chance to block licenses for illegals
By Howie Carr
Gov. Charlie Baker has said over and over again that he’s opposed to
giving driver’s licenses to illegal aliens and now he finally has a
chance to prove it.
He can veto the illegal-alien driver’s license handout in the new
state budget.
Hey, the illegal-alien-welfare-industrial complex says all of us
American citizens who work for a living are overreacting to the
underhanded provision they snuck into the new budget in the dead of
night last week. If they’re telling the truth, it shouldn’t be a
problem for the governor to strike the giveaway language, should it?
If you want to tell the governor whether you think illegal aliens
should be allowed to get driver’s licenses, his telephone number is
617-725-4005.
Leave him a message. It’s easy. You don’t even have to press “2” for
English.
Most illegal aliens are already on welfare (like Obama’s late aunt
Zeituni) and huge numbers of them already have driver’s licenses
(like Obama’s uncle Omar). So why do we want to make it any easier
for ever-increasing numbers of these deadbeats to leech off us?
This is all about the federal REAL ID Act. States have been mandated
by Congress to tighten up their licensing requirements, or the TSA
will no longer accept the scofflaw states’ driver’s licenses at,
say, airport security gates. If the Commonwealth hadn’t done
anything, every Bay State resident who wanted to get on a commercial
airline flight would have needed to present a U.S. passport.
But the solution is simple. Sen. Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester) put 21
words into the budget that would have solved the problem and made
our licenses REAL ID-compliant:
“No license of any type may be issued to a person who does not have
lawful status in the United States ...”
Period.
The 331-page 2017 state budget came out of conference committee
Wednesday night, with an up-or-down vote scheduled for Thursday. Lo
and behold, second-generation hack Sen. Tom McGee of Lynn, who is
also the chairman of the state Democratic Party, had inserted this
life preserver for his undocumented Democratic constituents:
“The registrar shall issue more than 1 type of license ... as may be
prescribed by the registrar... . (In addition to the authentic
REAL-ID license for taxpayers) the registrar shall also issue a
Massachusetts license to an applicant who provides documentation and
demonstrates qualifications acceptable to the registrar.”
What possible reason could there be for setting up a two-tier system
of driver’s licenses, except to allow illegal aliens to get them, so
that they can commit even more welfare fraud than they already do?
What was the problem with the original 21 words in Tarr’s provision?
In addition to the governor being Deval Baker — I mean, Charlie
Baker — there’s another huge red flag here. The registrar of motor
vehicles is a career $137,000-a-year Democrat named Erin Deveney.
She was thisclose to Deval Patrick. She was a campaign contributor
to Deval’s seriously bent lieutenant governor, Tim “Crash” Murray.
In other words, she can’t be trusted as far as you could throw her.
There’s a reason why the Democrats want to give their fellow Deval
Patrick acolyte the rubber stamp to hand out drivers’ licenses to
illegal immigrants.
Almost every illegal alien in the state already has a driver’s
license.
What have Deveney and her bosses in either party done to stop this
unprecedented foreign wave? And now the legislature wants to allow
her to issue still more licenses to illegals who “demonstrate
qualifications acceptable to the registrar.”
What could possibly go wrong? Deveney has the Deval Patrick seal of
approval.
A few years back, Rep. Jim Lyons (R-Andover) stopped state
government until Deval turned over records detailing how much
welfare for illegal aliens was costing Massachusetts. The number was
$1.8 billion. That’s what the Democrats admitted.
On Thursday, on the floor of the House, Lyons pointed out the
insanity of giving driver’s licenses to illegals. Of course only a
handful of his fellow solons bothered to listen.
“This will only encourage more of them to come here,” he said. “Do
you think that will cost us more, or less, money?”
Follow-up question: Will an even larger influx of illegal aliens
mean more, or less, crime to Massachusetts?
The “advocates” say it’s just a coincidence that the new provision
was surreptitiously inserted at the last second in the dead of
night, and that it’s no big deal. So it shouldn’t be a big deal to
remove it, right?
All Gov. Baker has to do is veto the provision and send it back to
the Legislature with a demand that they add three words to the
sentence. Here, Charlie, I’ll even write the three words for you.
“Nor Massachusetts license.”
The sentence will then read:
“No REAL ID-compliant nor Massachusetts license shall be issued to a
person who fails to provide proof of lawful presence.”
Call Charlie Baker at the State House and let him know whether you
support giving driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. He won’t be back
until Tuesday, but you can leave him a message.
Again, his telephone number is 617-725-4005.
The Boston Herald
Saturday, July 2, 2016
Concerns mount over possibility state will give illegals licenses
By Matt Stout and Brian Dowling
A vaguely worded provision tucked into the $39.1 billion budget and
passed at the 11th hour this week is setting off alarms over the
possibility the state will issue driver’s licenses to illegal
immigrants.
The issue centers on the state’s mandate to meet standards under
federal law passed in 2005, which ramps up the qualifications for
residents to get a state driver’s license and is intended to prevent
terrorists from using the IDs to enter federal buildings or board
planes. The state has been working under a waiver from issuing
so-called Real ID licenses, but that expires in October.
The debate sprang into budget discussions this week when language,
introduced by state Sen. Thomas McGee, was included, requiring
people to have a “lawful presence” in the U.S. to get either a
federally compliant Real ID license or a standard-issue
Massachusetts driver’s license.
The “lawful presence” standard, set under federal law, covers U.S.
citizens, but also immigrants who fall under a range of categories,
including those who have been admitted for temporary residence in
the U.S., granted asylum, or those with pending or approved
temporary protected status.
But it immediately sparked vastly different views from advocates on
both sides of the issue.
Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies — a
Washington, D.C.-based think tank that backs stricter immigration
laws — said the law gives discretion to the registrar of the
Registry of Motor Vehicles in issuing a Massachusetts license.
“It’s clearly set up to provide a pathway to a license for illegal
immigrants,” Vaughan said.
But Amy Grunder, policy director for the Massachusetts Immigrant &
Refugee Advocacy Coalition, said that’s a power the registrar
already has.
“My read is that current eligibility for regular licenses is
unchanged, except with regard to temporary licenses and IDs,” she
said in an email, adding it mainly affects those temporarily in the
country on non-immigrant visas.
The Baker administration is still in the midst of reviewing it. “It
has been and continues to be the policy of the Baker-Polito
administration not to issue licenses to undocumented individuals,”
spokeswoman Lizzy Guyton said.
McGee, who also chairs the state Democratic Party, sought to tamp
down concerns on the Senate floor. “No one who is not here legally
would be eligible,” he said, according to a transcript from the
State House News Service. “We’ve been approved by the federal
government. They are accepting this.”
State House News Service
Thursday, June 30, 2016
Rep riles colleagues during brief debate on $39.15 Bil budget
By Andy Metzger
Members of the House roared in approval Thursday afternoon as
Speaker Robert DeLeo opened a roll call, ending what had been a
roughly 45-minute debate on the $39.1 billion fiscal 2017 budget.
Rep. James Lyons, an Andover Republican, had extended the brief
discussion by arguing that spending cuts should be increased to
account for shrinking revenue estimates and protections should be
added to the legislation to ensure that those in the country
illegally cannot be granted licenses by the registrar of motor
vehicles.
Early discussion of the conference committee's budget, which
featured a lower bottom line than the $39.5 billion bills passed by
the House and Senate in April and May, had focused heavily on the
hard work of other members and staff, the priorities preserved in
the leaner spending document, and the fiscal prudence of acting
swiftly to adjust to lower revenue estimates announced this month.
Lyons, however, disagreed with the amount of spending, a budget
rider granting additional reprieve to municipal retirees' health
care costs, and the Andover Republican suggested money could be
freed up if the state didn't expend resources on "people who are not
legally here."
Democrats rebuffed Lyons, interrupting to ask if he would yield the
floor, asserting that Massachusetts is welcoming to all people, and
defending the budget.
"Many of us believe that this is a state that welcomes everyone,"
said Rep. Ruth Balser, a Newton Democrat. She said, "I defy anyone
to say there are people who don't have a right to live with us in
this great state of Massachusetts."
"We should not be spending our tax dollars to people who live in
this state who do not have a legal right to be here, and I stand by
that comment," Lyons said.
Jamaica Plain Rep. Elizabeth Malia rose and questioned the relevance
of Lyons's "diatribe."
"We're talking about where the money goes," Lyons responded. He
said, "I happen to like these diatribes. I think we ought to do more
of it in the House of Representatives."
Even casual observers of the state Legislature can tell that
senators engage in more back-and-forth debate than their House
counterparts.
Reps. Jay Livingstone, of Boston, and Jonathan Hecht, of Watertown,
both Democrats, said House members do not dislike debate, but
believed Lyons had already made his point.
"There was little new information that was being provided by anyone
in the debate so I think people were pleased that the speaker cut it
off," Livingstone said.
"People thought that the points had been made. They weren't
supported by many people in the body," Hecht said. He said, "I think
people enjoyed hearing some debate and I think most people would
like to hear more debate."
Lyons told the News Service open debate is a way for lawmakers to
let the public know their priorities in the Legislature.
"I think open debate is a better way for everybody - whatever side
you're on - to let the people know and let the people in here know
what they believe in and why," Lyons said.
The $39.1 billion budget, which was substantially different from the
House budget approved in April, passed 150-3 with Lyons and
Republican Reps. Geoff Diehl, of Whitman, and Shaunna O'Connell, of
Taunton, casting votes against the bill. After the vote, DeLeo
informed House members that there would be no further roll calls and
most members left Beacon Hill for the holiday weekend.
In recent years, budgets passed in June and July have become
unbalanced as the fiscal year progresses, requiring mid-year fixes.
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Citizens for Limited Taxation ▪
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▪ 508-915-3665
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