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waffle-princess t1_ivpezf2 wrote

I don't understand why people are ok with this. I get the argument for insurance purposes, but that's not the big picture. While I sympathize with these folks, they are in the country ILLEGALLY. WHY should we be granting them DRIVERS LICENSES when they should really be DEPORTED. This is UNFAIR FOR LEGAL IMMIGRANTS and defies logic.

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metallzoa t1_ivpjqb5 wrote

you don't understand it because you also only understand the immigration problem in the US at a surface level. There are way bigger problems to address instead of spending billions of taxpayer money on an effort to deport people who have no crime history and are living their lives, working, paying taxes and driving their kids to school.

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Pocketpine t1_ivpjk8q wrote

If they’re going to drive anyway, would you rather them be licensed and insured, or neither licensed nor insured?

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DanieXJ t1_ivrneba wrote

Still aren't required to have insurance on a car to get a license. But... live in your crazy world with this yes on 1 'safety' lie.

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hyperside89 t1_ivpgkp6 wrote

Listen - as long as we have geopolitical instability and the opportunity for a better life in the US what there will be illegal immigration. It would be naive to pretend otherwise, so we need policies to address that.

So the question really should be:

  1. Will this law incentives more people to participate in illegal immigration
  2. Does the greater good of this law outweigh any of the possible downsides

On point 1 above - I really don't think making illegal immigrants get licenses and pay for insurance is somehow going to incentivize more people to immigrant illegally.

And for point 2 above - resoundingly yes. Primarily through the general public safety benefit which will improve quality life for legal MA residents.

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Academic_Guava_4190 t1_ivr6cgl wrote

Being an “illegal” immigrant takes nothing away from “legal” immigrants. What is unfair for people attempting to immigrate through proper channels and not seek asylum is that the process takes so damn long. If you lived in a dangerous area where your life was being threatened by the govt and more and you felt so strongly that you had to flee to Canada, would you want them to say “sorry you can’t come in. You have to go back and do it the right way.” Or would you want them to have compassion and work with you to help you obtain legal status

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TheTravinator t1_ivq3flq wrote

Your use of caps lock doesn't really help your case here.

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waffle-princess t1_ivq4yey wrote

My hangup is this - why are we extending licenses to people who are in the United States in violation of our immigration laws instead of deporting them? This makes no sense. This ends up creating unfair competition for jobs with our least prepared workers and puts a strain on public funds.

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hyperside89 t1_ivqn8cg wrote

"Unfair competition for jobs" Listen, I work in HR, and we are desperate for hourly employees willing to work for $16 - $22 / hr. Unemployment is at a record low. We NEED more people to perform work.

Not to mention the jobs many undocumented immigrants do are jobs Americans do not want to do. Look into what happened during COVID when vegetable and fruit farmers in the south were unable to utilize LEGAL temporary immigrants during the harvest due to border closures.

We might not like it, but we rely on both legal and illegal immigration to keep the economy going.

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petal_in_the_corner t1_ivs17ah wrote

I really hate this argument coming from the left. $16 an hour in MA in 2022 is not a good wage. I imagine Americans would be more willing to do this job if it paid the rent.

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hyperside89 t1_ivt12c8 wrote

Just pointing out we hire nationally and $16 is our starting wage in other states, no MA. In some locations $16 - $17 is a living wage (https://livingwage.mit.edu/) for a single person.

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StarbeamII t1_ivs2vv8 wrote

So how much more do you want to pay for groceries?

Also with record low unemployment at some point there just aren't enough workers out there, and crops are going to just rot in the field unless you find more people to do the work. If you just pay people higher wages to try to get people to do the job, then that one extra farm worker is one less cashier, one less cook, or one less cleaner, and now you just moved your labor shortage problems elsewhere.

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GreenPylons t1_ivs1wbh wrote

Because immigration is the federal government's responsibility, not the states. State and local governments aren't the people that are in charge of the immigration system and aren't responsible for enforcing it.

It's similar to how marijuana is illegal federally but it's legal at the state level. Your local or state police isn't going to arrest you for possessing or selling weed despite it being a federal crime, because it's not Massachusett's responsibility to enforce federal drug laws. That's the fed's job.

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