Montco Lawmaker Pushes To Ban Undocumented Immigrants From Driving

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PA — A state lawmaker representing Montgomery County has introduced a constitutional amendment that would ban undocumented immigrants from obtaining driver's licenses, parroting the virulent, anti-immigrant rhetoric that has filtered President Trump's administration into the mainstream.

State Rep. Donna Scheuren (R-147) claimed in a co-sponsorship memorandum that "thousands of criminals, including rapists, pedophiles, and human traffickers" from other countries flooded into Pennsylvania during the Biden administration.

She cited a handful of news stories of immigrants committing isolated crimes, sourced from Fox News and the New York Post, as a sort of works cited under her introduction to the bill. However, the oft-repeated claim that immigrants are responsible for crime waves is not based in fact, according to a numerous analyses from the Brennan Center for Justice, Northwestern University, and others.

"Instead of gathering data and examining the issue empirically, they are making this broad assertion based on highly publicized individual incidents of crime by undocumented immigrants," notes the Brennan Center, a think tank and nonprofit. "All acts of violence must be taken seriously. But policymakers should not attribute blame to entire classes of people when individuals commit crimes."

Schueren also pointed to a National Highway Traffic Safety’s 2021 Traffic Safety Facts Report, which found that unlicensed drivers accounted for some 11,000 fatal crashes in 2021. However, unlicensed drivers come from all backgrounds and nationalities, and are not restricted to immigrants without documentation.

Schueren added that the process for legal immigration should be respected, and allowing undocumented individuals to drive would be incentivizing people to circumvent that process.

"We cannot afford to burden our constituents by allowing those who already committed a federal crime by entering our country illegally with the opportunity to freely drive on the roadways of Pennsylvania," Scheuren added during a news briefing Tuesday.

The full House Bill 927 can be viewed online here.