We're back from more garden work than we had anticipated this past extended holiday weekend, an experience that gave us a very small taste of what those who work in the state's agriculture community experience as they grow our food. It's hard work.
One of the first items to jump out at us as we play catch up from the end-of-the-session-garden-marathon is mentioned in Tuesday's Morning Take:
DRIVERSLICENSE: On Twitter from SEIU 26 President Javier Morillo a letter from 2014 signed by Speaker Kurt Daudt on drivers licenses for immigrants. READ: http://bit.ly/2qwkvGz
Here's the tweet:
In 14 @kdaudt signed letter supporting Drivers Licenses for All. This lie is reason enough to veto public safety bill pic.twitter.com/kDbUiDThEz
— Javier Morillo (@javimorillo) May 27, 2017
Why this matters
In Republicans tout legislative accomplishments; Dayton to sign or veto bills this week, J. Patrick Coolican reports at the Strib:
Following a stream of immigrant rights groups and labor leaders, DFL Chairman Ken Martin urged a veto of a public safety budget bill that includes language barring the state from giving driver's licenses to Minnesotans who are undocumented immigrants.
"As an ally of Minnesota's diverse immigrant communities, I want to bring awareness to how devastating this policy is to immigrant families throughout our state," Martin said on Facebook.
Martin isn't alone in his passion on this one. In More court funding, no protestor measure in judiciary and public safety agreement, Session Daily's Mike Cook reported:
The Public Safety Department would be prohibited from using its rulemaking authority to issue driver’s licenses for undocumented residents.
“This is in place clearly — clearly — because there’s a mean spirit behind this,” said Rep. Raymond Dehn (DFL-Mpls). Rep. Karen Clark (DFL-Mpls) said the provision “smacks of injustice and, I’m afraid, it also smacks of racism.” . . .
Opponents noted people are already driving without a license or insurance.
“How does it enhance public safety when we’re prohibiting a group of people from taking the written driving test, from taking the road test and having insurance?” said Rep. Frank Hornstein (DFL-Mpls). “We have tens of thousands of aspiring citizens that are living, working, driving, going to school, going to work (and) paying taxes that have not accomplished these three things we ask of people when we drive. That does not enhance public safety.”
Ag Finance Chair Rod Hamilton, R-Mountain Lake, gave one of his signature emotional floor speeches against the bill, before voting no:
We included St. Paul DFLer Rep. Erin Murphy's offer to stand with Hamilton and share her legs with him, since Hamilton is living with complications of MS. Watch the entire debate on the whole bill here.
Photo: Minnesota House Speaker Kurt Daudt.
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