On Wednesday, June 5, the Assembly Transportation Committee voted in favor of a bill that allows undocumented immigrants to obtain official driver’s licenses in New York. The bill, A.3675a, allows the DMV to issue standard driver’s licenses to anyone regardless of immigration status and restricts what information can be retained and given out from those applying or currently holding standard driver’s licenses.

By allowing this practice, New York is ignoring federal law, creating conflicts for law enforcement and extending citizenship privileges to those who are in the country illegally.

“It is outrageous to see the number of privileges that have been extended to non-citizens here in New York,” said Smullen. “We are one of the highest-taxed states in the nation, where outmigration of families and jobs has no end in sight and we haven’t done anything to address these concerns.

The tax base to sustain the needs of our states’ citizens is shrinking, so why have we not focused on that? I fully support efforts to reform our immigration system and make it better, but to make granting the privileges of legal citizens universal to all is not good policy.”