Assemblyman Peters & Assemblywoman-Elect Stanfield Slam Dems Lame Duck Push to Give NJ Driver’s Licenses to Illegal Immigrants

Stanfield cites public safety concerns; Peters demands Democrats wait until new legislature is seated to consider the proposal Eighth Legislative District, November 8, 2019 – Reacting to reports about legislative Democrats seeking to push through a bill (S3229/A4743) that grants valid New Jersey driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, Assemblyman Ryan Peters and Assemblywoman-elect Jean Stanfield released the following statements today raising public safety concerns and condemning the attempt to push such a bill through during the lame duck session:

“When it comes to securing a valid New Jersey driver’s license, we require residents to provide 6-points of identification to qualify. Given that, how can we turn around and allow someone who isn’t even in this country legally – and may not have any reliable form of identification – to get a license?” asked Assemblywoman-elect Stanfield, who previously served six terms as Burlington County Sheriff. “This is
another case of Governor Murphy’s warped view of ‘fairness’ potentially creating a public safety issue that makes our communities less safe. It’s terrible public policy. Serving as a check on reckless ideas like this coming from Trenton Democrats is one of the reasons I ran and, frankly, one of the reasons Ryan and I won despite being massively outspent.”

Stanfield cited the case of a fugitive child sex offender on the run for over 20 years before he was caught in Pennsylvania. “He was able to get a driver’s license – and consequently a whole new identity – because he went into a DMV at the time and said he didn’t have a birth certificate because he was born on an Indian reservation. We now have a six-point identification program to protect against cases such as that,” added Stanfield.

Assemblyman Peters challenged the Governor, Senate President Steve Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin to wait until the new legislature is sworn-in and not try to slam this controversial bill through in lame duck. “Governor Murphy said giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants was a
‘no-brainer’ earlier this year,” said Peters. “If that’s true, then why did Democrat legislative leaders try to bury this during the election and now want to sneak it through when fewer people are paying attention? If this is such a ‘no-brainer’ then let’s have this debate in an open, transparent and public way when the new legislature is seated. In fact, I want to call on Senator Addiego to join with Jean and me to publicly oppose the bill and call on the Senate President to hold off until next year. People are sick of cynical, backroom politics, and I’m going to shine a light on it at every turn.”