Hundreds of immigrants from diverse ethnic communities demanded the right to have a driver’s license as they rallied through the streets of Queens on March 5th. Several advocacy groups for immigrant rights and elected officials joined the march to make their voices heard in Albany.

The Department of Motor Vehicles has been refusing driver’s licenses to immigrants despite a Judge’s order that they stop. Now New York State officials are trying to overturn Judge Karen S. Smith’s verdict and impose a ban on driver’s licenses for immigrants.

The New York Coalition for Immigrants’ Rights to Driver’s Licenses organized the march. They see the licenses as an immigrant worker rights issue and consider the restriction to be discriminatory. They urged the New York State DMV to hand out licenses to all drivers and leave the job of monitoring immigrants to Homeland Security, instead of forcing immigrants to drive illegally.

The group assembled at Junction Boulevard and 37th Avenue in Queens and marched down 37th Avenue to Hart Park on 69th Street.

Jimmy Meng, the first Chinese American elected to the New York State Assembly, joined the march and said the block on drivers’ licenses put immigrant workers’ basic survival rights at risk. He said, “New York is an immigrant city and everybody should be treated equally.” He opposed the DMV to block the licenses in the name of “anti-terrorism.”

New York City Councilman John Liu endorsed the immigrants’ demand that the DMV perform its duty and issue driver’s licenses to all those who can drive, including citizens, residents and undocumented immigrants with registered cars. According to Liu, many immigrant workers earn a living by driving and will continue to drive whether they have a legal license or not. If the DMV rejects their applications for a driver’s license, immigrants will drive on the road illegally without a proper insurance plan and threaten their safety as well as the public’s.

Councilman Liu claimed that the license policy was simply a political tactic for Governor Pataki to show his support for President Bush. He hoped the march would remind the Governor to give immigrants a fair chance.

Other groups such as the Asian-American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), CAAAV and Chinese Domestic Workers United joined the march to endorse the pledge.