RISC Urges Legislature to Block Chafee’s Actions
Friday, September 30, 2011
RISC issues the following statement late Friday evening:
(Governor Lincoln)Chafee backed and encouraged the state Board of Governors of Higher Education to cast a unanimous vote on September 26th to extend in-state tuition rates for the state’s colleges and URI to illegal immigrants who graduate from local high schools. Chafee followed up that vote with the revelation that he is looking into ways to grant special driver’s licenses to illegals.
“Governor Chafee has shown that when it comes to illegal immigrants, he is determined to inject his out of the mainstream impulses into Rhode Island policy and law, regardless of the role of the legislative body and regardless of the consequences,” states RISC Executive Director Harriet Lloyd.
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The driver’s license proposal Lloyd notes, is an especially troubling idea, especially since there are reports that neighboring Massachusetts is preparing to crack down on illegal drivers on its roads.
“It’s simply alarming to see our own Governor propose to just hand out a driver’s license to an undocumented person, in light of numerous raids and arrests of fraudulent document rings being run by illegals within our state. We could clearly become a magnet for illegals from neighboring states where most officials tend to be cracking down, not loosening up policies on illegals and drivers licenses.”
Lloyd further notes Chafee’s attention should be on the state’s more pressing fiscal crisis.
“Chafee is governing by whim and by impulse and with a lack of sustained focus to the most pressing fiscal issues now before us. As the critically needed pension reform legislative session approaches, the Governor’s attention, focus and advocacy efforts should not be spent on complex, divisive issues like state policies on illegal immigrants,” she says.
RISC urges the General Assembly to block any attempt by Chafee to pursue the driver’s license proposal.
“We urge our elected lawmakers to stand up to this Governor’s reckless governing style and challenge his authority to implement a statewide policy permitting undocumented persons to obtain RI driver’s licenses,” Lloyd says. “He clearly would be attempting this as an end-run around the Legislature, since previous legislative attempts to pass such an initiative have not prevailed.”
RISC is the largest bi-partisan taxpayer advocacy organization in the state.
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