A resurfaced video from 2018 shows Abdul El-Sayed, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Michigan, stating that withholding driver's licenses from undocumented immigrants constitutes discrimination. In the clip, El-Sayed, who was then running for governor, argued that a failure to provide licenses based on documentation status leaves individuals without access to essential state services.
"We’ve got to make sure that in this state we are not discriminating against documentation status. Right now, if you’re undocumented, you don’t get access to a driver’s license. You’re stuck," El-Sayed said in the interview, which was posted on YouTube by Detroit PBS.
In the video, El-Sayed expressed concern that undocumented immigrants would be ineligible for state-offered advantages. "You don’t get access to a lot of the basic things that the state offers everybody else, and I think that’s ridiculous and so we’ve got to stop discriminating that way," he stated.
Hans von Spakovsky, an elections expert for Advancing American Freedom, commented that driver's licenses can serve as a form of identification for various transactions, including opening bank accounts and completing employment eligibility paperwork. He suggested that providing licenses to undocumented immigrants could facilitate their ability to live and work in the United States.
El-Sayed has historically supported a more government-centric approach to public services, advocating for policies such as Medicare for All and tuition-free higher education. His campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding his past statements on driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants or whether such a policy would signal approval of their presence in the country. El-Sayed faces Rep. Haley Stevens in Michigan's Senate primaries on Tuesday evening.