District 9
January 9, 2009
Contact: Jason Smith / (609) 693-6700
District 9
Connors, Rumpf & Van Pelt to Governor: No Driver Licenses or In-State Tuition for Undocumented Immigrants

Senator Christopher J. Connors, Assemblyman Brian E. Rumpf and Assemblyman Daniel M. Van Pelt, all R-9th District (Ocean, Burlington and Atlantic) today called on the Governor to reject any recommendation to offer driver identification cards or in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants in New Jersey.

In a letter sent to Governor Corzine, the 9th District Delegation made the following remarks:

“According to recent media reports, the report issued by your Blue Ribbon Advisory Panel on Immigration Policy may include recommendations to allow undocumented aliens to legally drive in our state as well as to provide in-state tuition rates for these individuals. If this is in fact the case, our Delegation urges you in the strongest terms to reject these recommendations in whatever form they are offered.

“Already, security experts are conveying their deep concerns over the prospect of creating a separate driver’s license or identity card. We wholeheartedly agree that this proposal would negatively impact our state’s security efforts and pose an unnecessary risk to public safety. Furthermore, the cost of higher education in New Jersey is already too expensive for many families to afford. How can the state contemplate such a proposal at a time when it wrongfully cut the NJ STARS program by reducing the number of hardworking students who can achieve scholarships at county colleges?

“The resources of the state’s Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC) should be completely dedicated to servicing legal residents. As you are well aware, for security purposes our state instituted a strict six-point ID process for residents to obtain driver’s licenses. When instituted, this process created significant hardships for residents, most especially senior citizens and veterans, who were unable to locate decades-old documents to prove their identities. It would be a slap in the face to these individuals, many of whom lived in New Jersey their entire lives yet were forced to endure this nightmarish bureaucratic process for reasons of security, only to see their state provide undocumented immigrants with drivers’ licenses.

“Lastly, you may be interested to know that our Delegation has introduced legislation, S-81/A-290, to exclude illegal aliens from receiving workers’ compensation and temporary disability benefits. The 9th District Delegation has sponsored this measure for several Sessions but it has yet to be considered in Committee. Accordingly, we are respectfully requesting your support as a means of getting this legislation posted by the Labor Committees of the respective Houses to which they have been referred. Enactment of this legislation would ensure that workers’ compensation and temporary disability benefits would be provided only to legal workers, for whom this benefit was intended to assist.â€