More bad ideas based on bad assumptions from Jefferson City. This bill will not have any effect on undocumented people because those people cannot get driver’s license because they do not have the proper authorization from Immigration. This will only effect legal immigrants who are actually doing what these anti-immigrant people want, they are doing it legally. The fact is that you do not need to even know how to read to be able to be a safe driver because signs are internationally standardized for this very reason.
On that note, it is possible for someone who is illiterate to take the Missouri Driver’s exam and this would not change that provision, only that it be given exclusively in English. How does it, then, make sense that they are doing this as a matter of public safety? Being able to read and study and pass a test in French somehow makes you less safe than someone who cannot read at all? A foreign language speaker is a worse driver than someone who is illiterate?
Representatives from the Insurance industry testified against this idiotic bill as did many members of the community and heads of charitable organizations. No one testified in favor of it. The Insurance lobbyist said this would guarantee more uninsured drivers not more English Speaking Drivers. He is right because people will not stop driving. Why on earth are they wasting their time on these kind of stupid laws? Why is this even an issue? Because it is one more example of politicians using immigrants to confuse the issue of immigration reform. This time they are picking on the ones who have “done it legally, which is what they claim to want.
What is almost as disturbing to me as the blatant illogical and baseless rhetoric behind this law as well as SB590 requiring schools and cops to check immigration status is that the representatives are literally spitting in the face of a representative democracy. No one testified in favor and many against? Yes lets pass it. They do not care about their constituents nor the people of Missouri. They do not care if they cost you money or endanger your businesses or children or safety on the road. This is the 2nd vote this week that completely ignored the fact that the overwhelming majority of the comments were against the law.