Erick Diaz, an undocumented Mexican farmworker who milks cows on an Addison County dairy farm, remembers being pleasantly startled by his first trip to Vermont’s Statehouse. He’d trekked the hour and a half to Montpelier — after getting a coworker to cover his milking shifts on the farm — to explain to lawmakers why Vermont should issue driver’s licenses to undocumented farmworkers.
“I was very surprised, because you just walk into the Statehouse, and [the representatives] allow you to talk and they hear your voice,” said Diaz, who spoke with Seven Days yesterday by phone. “It was pretty amazing.”
Lawmakers, it turns out, were listening. Today, Gov. Peter Shumlin will sign into law the bill that Diaz — along with many other migrant farmworkers and their advocates — campaigned hard to pass this legislative session. The new law will allow Vermont to issue so-called “operator’s privilege cards” to individuals regardless of immigration status, for the first time giving undocumented immigrants the legal ability to drive on Vermont’s roads.
The bill passed the Vermont House in a 105-39 vote last month, after winning similarly overwhelming support in a 27-2 Senate vote in April. Diaz and his compatriots will have to wait until January 1 to apply for the new card, but he says he’s hopeful that the change will radically improve the quality of life for the estimated 1500 undocumented farmworkers living in Vermont today.
“We are so excited waiting for January 1,” said Diaz. “I’m pretty sure this is going to change our lives completely.”
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