WOBURN -- Efforts to collect enough signatures to have voters decide this fall whether illegal immigrants should be rewarded with state-issued driver's licenses are intentionally being stalled by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, Massachusetts Republican Party Chairman Jim Lyons said Wednesday.
Healey is purportedly responsible for finalizing petition language related to the proposed referendum, which is aimed at putting the driver's-licenses-for-illegal-immigrants law, passed this spring by Democrats without a single Republican vote, before voters in November.
Regardless, once Healey "approves" the petition referendum, proponents have only until Aug. 24 to clear a 40,000-signature requirement to ensure the it appears on state election ballots.
Meanwhile, it took less than 12 hours for the Secretary of State's office to forward the petition, submitted on June 15, to Healey, where it has since languished.
"This is all about politics and all about waiting out the clock, something Maura Healey has done in the past," Lyons said, referencing Healey's refusal to certify a 2020 ballot initiative aimed at codifying into law a newborn's right to lifesaving medical care. "Maura Healey used her office to sue a Republican United States president more than 40 times and is no stranger to playing political games in an effort to keep the Democrats' unpopular legislation from being decided upon by Massachusetts voters."
"The real reason why Maura Healey continues to refuse to approve the petition referendum is because she supports rewarding illegal immigrants with driver's licenses and doesn't want to see the issue appear on the ballot."
