Maryland’s law regarding driver’s licenses for immigrants has been the same for many years now, despite various and repeated attempts by a few politicians and outside anti-immigrant groups to change it.

Under our law, if an applicant can provide documentary proof of their age and identity as well as their competency to drive, they should be able to get their license, regardless of immigration status. Unfortunately, all of that is about to change, not because Maryland law has changed, but because a new federal law, dubbed the “REAL ID” Act, has passed, forcing all of the states, including Maryland, to effectively deny licenses to those who are not here legally.

One of the biggest selling points for REAL ID has been the misperception that denying the undocumented a driver’s license will increase our national security. Unfortunately, REAL ID will not make us safer.

This contention is not immigrant-friendly wishful thinking, it is based on the considered opinion of nationally-recognized experts such as Margaret Stock, a Professor at West Point who teaches national security and and Kim Taipale, Director of the Center for Advanced Studies.

Both of these experts have authored written statements that are easily accessible on the internet and that were forwarded to Maryland’s elected officials, which is one of the reasons why the majority of our legislators have repeatedly and correctly rejected state-versions of REAL ID.

REAL ID is also fueled by the misguided hope that such policies will make us all go home, or keep more immigrants from coming to the U.S. As any immigrant will tell you, home is where social stability and economic opportunities make it possible for people to meet their deeply-felt moral and financial obligations to their children, their spouses, and to their community. That’s why immigrants aren’t going anywhere, and why virtually all immigrants hold a deep appreciation for what this country offers.

That is why for the last three years immigrants have made their case in the hearing rooms of our state capital, clearly describing their need to drive to work and showing that experts have concluded that licenses for all will make everyone safer.

Now that Maryland has been forced to go the other way, immigrants will be forced to drive illegally in order to put food on the table. This outcome literally solves nothing, certainly not national security, and only creates more problems. It is hard to tell what is more alarming: that our federal elected officials were unaware of the disaster that they were creating, or that they chose to ignore it in order to score an anti-immigrant victory of no real value.

Many states are already beginning to publicly question the legality of the federal legislation, and arguing that it will be prohibitively expensive to implement. Whatever the ultimate fallout of this misguided policy, immigrants will do well to hold our federal representatives responsible for their actions, or inaction, on REAL ID. All immigrants, documented and undocumented, first and second generation immigrants, etc., need to respond to REAL ID.

It is written in the bible that Jesus said “as you have done it for the least of my brothers, you have done it unto me.” Whether or not you believe in Jesus or the bible, these are words to live by, because they call upon us to relate to one another in the same way, without regard to social, economic or other statuses, and with a universal respect applied to all.

It is in this way that an affront to our undocumented brothers and sisters is an affront to us all, and those of us who have the power to vote need to be doubly-vigilant of how our community is being effected by policies like REAL ID. Maryland needed dedicated and meaningful leadership to defeat REAL ID, which unfortunately didn’t happen. We need to ask each and every of our federal officials whether such leadership is what they provided, and if not, why not.