For all the frenetic and tedious disputation we have in our politics, you’d think it would be easy to forward a measure that is sponsored by 25 members of the Assembly and supported by a huge public majority.

For example: There are 466,000 unauthorized immigrants of driving age in New Jersey, they need licenses to get to work and get their kids to school, but a bill granting them that kind of freedom seems to have paralyzed our legislative leaders with a chronic case of political yips.

There must not be any misunderstandings about what this bill does, but the ongoing delay is a result of our lawmakers’ inability to reconcile such misunderstandings.

The bill creates two types of licenses. One is compliant with the federal Real ID Act, which allows users to board domestic flights. The other is strictly for driving, and it would be issued to immigrants without legal status and certain senior citizens.

The benefits are well-documented. In a dozen states where they have adopted a similar law – including Utah and Nevada – there are metrics showing safer roads, fewer fatalities, sharp declines in hit-and-runs, and more drivers insured.

New Jersey Policy Perspective issued a report last week that our proposal would add $9 million in revenue from registration and licensing fees, and make the lives of 719,000 New Jerseyans much easier – not only immigrants, but those recently released from prison – because it empowers working families.

Here’s what happens if New Jersey does not become the 13th state to provide driving privileges to the undocumented:

“They’re going to be driving, whether we like it or not,” Senate President Steve Sweeney said last September.

Simple as that. That means hundreds of thousands of drivers will be a public safety risk because they didn’t take road tests, they won’t obtain insurance coverage, and they will continue to drive in the shadows in cars that are probably unregistered.

It’s hard to understand why leadership would perpetuate that, but the bill – which has the governor’s support - cannot get a hearing in the Assembly.

That suggests that Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex, is fearful of political backlash with all 80 seats on the ballot in November - even though 25 members of his caucus sponsored the bill.

These sponsors don’t seem to endorse Coughlin’s dubious political calculation – raise no hackles, lose no seats – and they seem to understand something the speaker has overlooked: The advocates of this bill, who are far better plugged into the immigrant community than lawmakers, can generate their own backlash.

“The bill is sound public policy,” says Erika Nava, the immigration policy expert at NJPP, “and hesitancy to move this forward is rooted in fear and lack of political courage, not the merits of the legislation.”

Johanna Calle, the Director of the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, laments that “families suffer with every day that passes without access to driver’s licenses.”

At least 168K children in NJ have parents who don't have access to a license limiting their ability to thrive, be successful in school and later on in life. @SpeakerCoughlin, post bill to expand access to driver's licenses for a vote now! #LetsDriveNJ



☎️https://t.co/sjsCsoNtIX pic.twitter.com/qhTFYgtaX6 — Let's Drive NJ (@LetsDriveNJ) March 5, 2019

Coughlin, meanwhile, repeats the same platitudes he issued with regard to the stalled felon voting rights bill, suggesting that the legislation requires “a thorough and thoughtful process.”

No one would be surprised if the process stretched past Election Day, and that would be a shame. The bill has a 54-29 margin in public support, it has dozens of sponsors, and Coughlin has a 54-26 Democratic majority in the lower house.

There is no purpose to having such political capital if it cannot be used on something as important as easing a family’s burden. And for a party that often gasps about what’s happening at the southern border, it makes little sense to pass up an opportunity to make life better for immigrants across town.

Today, @GovMurphy announced that he will work toward allowing NJ residents – regardless of status- to obtain a valid drivers license - which is proven to increase licensed and insured drivers, create safer roads, and lower insurance premiums. #StrongerFairerNJ #StateoftheStateNJ pic.twitter.com/cFphGpgjiJ — New Jersey MVC (@NJ_MVC) January 15, 2019

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