As a Maine police division dukes it out with the feds over the latest arrest of considered one of its personal, backlash has reignited over a regulation that enables unlawful immigrants in Massachusetts to achieve driver’s licenses.
The Massachusetts Division of Transportation has reiterated that the Registry of Motor Automobiles doesn’t request info on or observe immigration standing for traditional license candidates or holders.
Bay State Republican commentators argue the lax method opened the door for Jamaican nationwide Jon Luke Evans to achieve a job with the Outdated Orchard Seaside Police Division as a seasonal reserve officer within the coastal Maine resort city.
Evans is alleged to have supplied a Massachusetts driver’s license within the spring when making use of for the position that he started earlier this summer time. Brokers with ICE’s Enforcement and Elimination Operations Boston bureau arrested the officer in late July after he allegedly admitted that he tried to purchase a gun for the place.
Evans additionally submitted his Jamaican start certificates and passport, U.S. Social Safety and work authorization playing cards and proof of faculty credit score to Outdated Orchard’s human sources as a part of the appliance, officers have mentioned.
The feds accuse Evans of overstaying his visa, however officers in Outdated Orchard Seaside argue the police division had been notified by the Division of Homeland Safety in the course of the hiring evaluate that his work allow cleared him to be employed within the U.S. till March 2030.
Republican critics in Massachusetts say the debacle might have been prevented if not for the so-called Work and Household Mobility Act, which offers a pathway to driver’s licenses for unlawful immigrants who can present some type of documentation.
“Without a valid driver’s license from Massachusetts, this illegal alien may not have qualified to become a police officer in Maine,” MassGOP Chairwoman Amy Carnevale mentioned in an announcement shared with the Herald. “Massachusetts Republicans urge the Commonwealth to rethink the wisdom of granting driver’s licenses to illegal aliens.”
“The risks are just too great,” she added.
A MassDOT spokesperson advised the Herald on Sunday that the RMV “received notice from Maine in May that this individual applied for a Maine license. Whenever the RMV receives notice that a license holder has received an out-of-state credential, it immediately acts to rescind the Massachusetts license.”
Below the Work and Household Mobility Act, which the state Legislature handed in Might 2022 and took impact in July 2023, people within the U.S. with out authorized standing can get hold of an ordinary, five-year Massachusetts driver’s license if they supply no less than two paperwork proving their identification and date of start.
No less than 19 states and the District of Columbia permit unlawful aliens to achieve driver’s licenses.
Evans entered the U.S. on Sept. 24, 2023, at Miami Worldwide Airport, however he violated the phrases of his lawful admission when he overstayed his visa, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has mentioned.
Evans was scheduled to depart the U.S. on Oct. 1, 2023, however he by no means boarded the flight.
Maine is considered one of greater than a dozen states within the U.S. that permit noncitizens to work in regulation enforcement.
MassDOT advised the Herald that the RMV doesn’t request or observe immigration standing on driver’s licenses, when requested to supply the variety of licenses issued to unlawful immigrants because the regulation’s implementation.
The transportation division, as an alternative, supplied knowledge displaying the whole variety of driving licenses issued over the previous few years.
Inside the first 12 months of the regulation, 387,284 had been supplied to candidates throughout the state, up from the 270,012 the 12 months earlier than. The quantity dropped to 326,131 between July 1, 2024 – June 30, 2025.
Gov. Maura Healey’s administration declined to touch upon Evans’ arrest in Maine and the way it believes the Work and Household Mobility Act has fared over its first two years.
“The fact that Gov. Healey’s administration doesn’t track illegal immigrants who obtain a Massachusetts driver’s license is by design, and not an oversight,” Paul Diego Craney, spokesman for state watchdog, the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, advised the Herald.
“Former Gov. Charlie Baker warned the public about this law when it was before him as legislation,” Craney added. “He vetoed it but Gov. Healey has taken the opposite approach and embraced it to use for political purposes.”
Lawmakers overruled Baker’s objections, opening the chance for these with out authorized standing to hunt driver’s licenses.
“I cannot sign this legislation because it requires the Registry of Motor Vehicles to issue state credentials to people without the ability to verify their identity,” Baker mentioned in a veto letter. “The Registry does not have the expertise or ability to verify the validity of many types of documents from other countries.”
Language included within the Work and Household Mobility Act bars the state from releasing any info associated to a Massachusetts license holder, documentation that had been thought of public and simply accessible from MassDOT earlier than the regulation went into impact.
Supporters have mentioned it’s essential to preserve the knowledge of a Massachusetts driver personal to guard their immigration standing, or lack thereof.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Shortsleeve advised the Herald that he would search to repeal the regulation if he’s elected as the subsequent governor.
“It sends the wrong message, undermines the rule of law, and comes with real security and voting risks,” he mentioned. “The insanity ends when I’m governor.”
