Illegal immigrant pleads with lawmakers

BOSTON, Mass. (WWLP) - Sujapa, an undocumented immigrant from Honduras, pleaded with lawmakers Tuesday to reject a bill that targets illegal immigration. 

“It’s dangerous for me to say, but the reality is that families come here because it’s a life or death situation at home.  We risk dying if we stay and the alternative is to come here,” said Sujapa, who would only give her first name.

Senate bill 2061 / House bill 3913 penalizes landlords who rent to undocumented immigrants and the employers who hire them.  It allows police to check their immigration status on drunk driving stops and bars them from paying the more affordable in-state college tuition fee.

The author of the bill, Senator Richard Moore, says the legislation merely aims to enhance community safety – Especially after the deaths of Matthew Denice and Richard Grossi, both from Milford, who were run over and killed in separate incidents by inebriated undocumented immigrants over the last three years

“We need to act sooner rather than later because people are dying because we’re not enforcing the law sufficiently and people aren’t observing the law as they should,” said Sen. Richard Moore (D-Uxbridge).

But immigrant advocates insist the bill mixes the issue of drunk driving up with immigration.

“State legislators are using this incident to target the immigrant community to propose broader anti-immigrant laws that can really you know create a lot more terror in our community,” said Brazilian Immigrant Center Executive Director Natalicia Tracy.

For now the bill sits in the Legislature’s judiciary committee.  No word on whether the bill will be reported out of committee.