Movimiento Cosecha showed up to Rep. Liberati’s home to demand he and his fellow Democrats make it a priority to pass Driver’s Licenses for All

On Saturday, some 20 members of Movimiento Cosecha made the trek from West Michigan to Detroit to pay a visit to Rep. Tullio Liberati’s home. 

Everyone rode down together, which provided opportunities for people talk and visit with each other, especially since it was a 3 hour drive. Most of the people who were talking were from Mexico, and they were talking about what part of the country they were from and regional language differences. However, what caught my attention most, was the conversations they were having about food. While I sat there listening to these conversations I thought to myself that these people not only have great relationships with each other, but they are rooted in and connected by deep cultural bonds.

Once we arrived to our destination, we parked about 6 blocks away from Rep. Liberati’s home. The group decided to walk there with signs and banners, but waited until they arrived at the Representative’s home before unfurling the banner, engaging in chants and live-streaming the action. 

Most of the Cosecha members stood on the sidewalk, facing the house and began chanting Driver’s Licenses Now! A small delegation walked up to Rep. Liberati’s home and knocked on the door, hoping to engage him in conversation about the current Driver’s Licenses bill. After several knocking attempts, no one came to the door. However, the group continued to chant and livestream the action, explaining why passing Driver’s Licenses for All was so urgent and important.

Eventually, several neighbors came out of their homes and a few walked over the see what was happening. One Latina mother was very receptive to the Cosecha action and talked with organizers for several minutes. Then there was an older white man who seemed confused about what was happening and thought that since the Representative wasn’t home, that it didn’t make sense to keep chanting. As the crowd safety person I let him know that this action was being livestream, so continuing the action was still relevant and important for sending a message. 

A few other people driving in the vehicles, stopped to take pictures/video and most seemed supportive of what was happening.

Why target Rep. Liberati, a Democrat?

Ever since the November 2022 Election, it has been know that the Democrats now controlled the State House, the State Senate and the Governor’s office in Michigan. They have set their priorities and already passed some mild reforms. However, not all of the Democrats in the State House support passing a Driver’s Licenses for All bill, with Rep. Liberati being one of them.

The coalition of groups that haver been working on passing this legislation, known as Drive Michigan Forward, has been working in the inside game, hoping to pressure State lawmakers to adopt the introduced legislation on driver’s licenses. They have been meeting with elected officials, doing some public education and phone banking to get the driver’s licenses bill passed.

Movimiento Cosecha has been working on this issue for a longer period of time, at least since 2018, even before there was proposed legislation. This immigrant justice movement chose to work on this issue, because that is what the undocumented immigrant group has been demanding. Movimiento Cosecha has also been working with Drive Forward Michigan to get this current legislation passed and encouraging people to contact legislators to support the bill. 

However, Cosecha also believes in pressuring elected officials in multiple ways, especially using Direct Action as a tactic to pressure politicians to meet their demands. Cosecha has continued to visit the offices and homes of Democrats who are either not on board with passing the current driver’s licenses bill or those who are not moving quickly enough on this urgent matter. I wrote about the lack of Democratic Party participation in the May Day march organized by Cosecha, which included the Senate Majority leader Winnie Brinks.

What people have to realize is that without driver’s licenses, the undocumented immigrant community is at risk of arrest, detention and deportation. Like any family, they primarily rely on driving cars to go to work, to buy groceries, take their kids to school or to medical appointments. Movimiento Cosecha went to Rep Liberati’s home on Saturday to communicate this urgency, especially because of the fact that if the Democrat-control Michigan legislature doesn’t pass this bill before next Thursday, they will be off for the next two months.

It is urgent that people send messages to the people in the graphic here below and tell them to make passing a driver’s licenses bill a top priority. The undocumented immigrant community lives in constant fear and many of them don’t have the luxury of taking time off to vacation, like the members of the Michigan legislature. Democrats can’t continue to to claim to support progressive issues and then not take action to adopt policies that the communities most impacted are demanding.