When states give driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants, it also affects non-drivers – even the youngest ones. Babies of immigrants from Mexico and Central America are larger and healthier in states that make this alteration. Our research shows. The longer a law is in effect before a toddler is conceived, the stronger the effect.

We are one sociologist and a Epidemiologist who examined the birth records of greater than 4 million babies born to Mexican and Central American immigrants who lived in states that had implemented expanded driver's license policies between 2008 and 2021.

We have found that low birth weight occurs in infants lower than 5 kilos, 8 ounces at birth – decreased by 7% in these states and the typical weight of newborns increased by 5.2 grams.

To validate our results, we repeated the evaluation for U.S.-born, non-Hispanic white pregnant people living in the identical states. We didn’t expect the law to have any impact on this group – and in truth we’ve got not found any.

Why it matters

This research shows how government policies related to immigration can impact the health and well-being of immigrant families, even when those policies don’t have anything to do with health.

Over the past 20 years, state governments have passed increasingly more immigration laws. While a few of these measures are aimed toward driving out immigrants, others are aimed toward giving them more protection. Such laws may apply to immigrants of various legal status, including undocumented immigrants and lawful everlasting residents. And they also can affect US residents.

Nineteen states Most recently, they passed laws that allow undocumented people to acquire driver's licenses Minnesota in 2023. Lawmakers in several other states, including Indiana and Michigan, have introduced similar measures. Florida, alternatively, has not only banned undocumented immigrants from obtaining driver's licenses, but additionally doesn’t recognize driver's licenses issued to undocumented immigrants from other federal states.

Previous research has shown how restrictive policies can negatively impact the health of immigrants and their children. Our study is certainly one of the primary to look at how supportive immigration policies on the state level, similar to expanding access to driver's licenses, affect health.

This is related to the next birth weight higher health throughout lifeincluding improved cognitive development in infancy and reduced risk of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases in middle age. It can also be connected with increasing income in maturity.

Since birth weight is a very important indicator future health and economic outcomesThe advantages of allowing undocumented people to acquire driver's licenses may very well be felt for a long time to return.

The laws we analyzed were implemented between 2013 and 2020, a period marked by increasing anti-immigrant sentiment. In the center Promise of mass deportations Under a second Donald Trump administration, these results are a timely reminder of the critical role of presidency policymaking within the health of immigrant families.

What isn’t yet known

We don't know exactly why expanding access to driver's licenses would result in healthier birth outcomes for immigrants.

One possible explanation is that these laws reduce stress. Stress exposure each before and while pregnant increases the chance of antagonistic birth outcomes. And for a lot of undocumented immigrants and their families, driving with no permit — a criminal offense that may jeopardize immigration status and even result in deportation — is a significant source of stress.

Additionally, obtaining a driver's license could make it easier for undocumented immigrants to work, find health care, and access other resources—all of which might contribute to higher birth weight.

It will take more work to work out the influence of all these aspects. For this reason, we consider researchers should examine the potential health effects of other inclusive state immigration policies, similar to: Such as eligibility for in-state tuition for undocumented residents, employment protections for non-citizens, and the availability of public medical insurance no matter legal status.

As our research shows, the well-being of immigrant families depends upon greater than just what happens in Washington.

Food News

Boston will 225 additional alcohol licenses After the bill received Governor Maura Healey's signature this week, it’s a serious victory for city officials and restaurant owners who’ve faced costly obstacles to alcohol sales due to Boston's cap.

In an announcement, Healey acknowledged that more restaurants within the neighborhoods would mean an economic boost for Boston.

“Neighborhood restaurants play such an important role in our communities and our economy,” Healey said. “This bill will lower the barriers for Boston restaurants to provide the services our customers seek and help them succeed, while supporting local nonprofits, theaters and open spaces.”

Most of those licenses are restricted to specific neighborhoods, meaning they’ll only be issued to restaurants in certain zip codes. If the restaurant now not uses the liquor license, it have to be returned to town somewhat than sold on the private market. However, state lawmakers made room for unrestricted licenses in the ultimate version of the law.

The 225 licenses are distributed as follows:

• Thirteen zip code areas in Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, East Boston, Roslindale, West Roxbury, Hyde Park, Charlestown, Jamaica Plain and South End may have access to 5 liquor licenses per 12 months, three alcoholic beverage licenses and two beer and wine licenses, over a three-year period.
• The Oak Square district of Brighton receives three non-transferable liquor licenses.
• Nonprofits, theaters and outdoor spaces can access 15 licenses.
• 12 licenses are unrestricted.

Some restaurants within the approved zip code areas had already approached the Licensing Board to acquire a liquor license as they awaited the passage of this law. The city's Licensing Board also holds open office hours to those applicants who could have questions on the procedure.

The news that Healey has signed the extra licenses into law comes greater than a 12 months after City Councilman Brian Worrell first introduced the bill. The original measure included fewer zip codes and didn’t provide for unrestricted licenses.

The bill never made it past the official session, which ended on August 1, resulting in public fears that the bill would never pass. But earlier this month, state and House lawmakers reached a compromise.

“On behalf of our fellow conference members, we are proud to announce that we have reached agreement on a compromise bill that would increase the number of liquor licenses in the City of Boston, dramatically improving equity for restaurant owners in the city's neighborhoods and increasing economic opportunity in communities of color that have been left out for too long,” Senator William Brownsberger and Representative Michael Moran said in a joint statement.

Supporters of the bill hope that its passage may help bridge the wide divide that exists between Boston's neighborhoods attributable to town's current alcohol service regulations.

Boston's liquor license restrictions mean that even when an operator gets one approved, it's nearly unimaginable to get a license from town. The only other option is to buy an unused license from a former restaurant or landlord on the private market, which might fetch as much as $600,000.

The rule has shaped today's restaurant scene: There are 60 to 90 licensed restaurants in Back Bay and Seaport, mostly bought up by restaurant groups that may afford them. And there are only a handful of licensed restaurants in Boston's predominantly low-income BIPOC communities like Mattapan and Roxbury.

“The lack of opportunity and access to licenses has left some of our neighborhoods without successful restaurants and nightlife, which is a cornerstone of thriving cities,” said Senator Liz Miranda, who introduced the unique bill with Assemblyman Christopher Worrell, in an announcement. “Blue Hill Avenue was once a cultural mecca in our city with successful black-owned restaurants and nightlife, and I believe we can be that again.”

Soon, much more Californians will have the opportunity to hold their driver’s license or ID card not only of their pocket or purse, but in addition of their digital wallet.

For state residents, this implies they’ll conveniently show their driver's license and ID of their Apple Wallet and Google Wallet at select online retailers and at TSA security checkpoints at airports, Governor Gavin Newsom announced this week.

“We're trying to scale identities so that they're secure and preserve privacy. And we're making sure people can store them on the same device that almost none of us leave the house without,” said Steve Gordon, director of the California Department of Transportation.

Since this system was launched, greater than 500,000 Californians have installed a mobile driver's license (or mDL in technical jargon) on their cell phones. Possession of the unique, physical driver's license continues to be required.

Currently, the mDL program allows digital driver's licenses and ID cards to be presented at select online retailers and at Los Angeles, San Jose Mineta and San Francisco international airports, but Gordon said digital identification will soon be more widely used.

“We have been told this will soon be the case at all commercial airports in California,” he said.

Gordon expects digital IDs to be an element of “everyday life,” from travel to law enforcement.

“There are countless use cases,” he said, “that the industry is eyeing.”

For more information, see www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/ca-dmv-wallet.

Originally published: August 16, 2024 at 8:50 am

Food News

A Measure to introduce alcohol licenses for Boston's most underserved communities was advanced within the House of Representatives on Thursday almost one 12 months after the bill was delivered to Beacon Hill by Boston officials and residents.

Lawmakers approved a complete of 205 licenses, a slight decrease from the 250 licenses called for in the unique bills introduced by Representative Christopher Worrell and Senator Liz Miranda for 2023.

Broken down, the 205 additional licenses includes 180 licenses for 12 Boston ZIP codes — Roxbury, Roslindale, Mattapan, Hyde Park, West Roxbury, East Boston, Dorchester, Charlestown and Jamaica Plain — in addition to 15 for nonprofits and three licenses for establishments in Brighton's Oak Square neighborhood. There are also seven unrestricted liquor licenses.

Five licenses per zip code will probably be distributed over three years. Those five licenses include three full liquor licenses and two wine and malt-only licenses—a win for neighborhoods that sometimes have only a handful of liquor licenses available.

Proponents originally called for 250 licenses to be distributed amongst Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, East Boston, Roslindale, West Roxbury and Hyde Park – five licenses per 12 months for every neighborhood over a five-year period.

These neighborhoods were chosen due to their stark differences from other Boston neighborhoods, similar to Back Bay and Seaport, where there are between 60 and 90 liquor licenses in a single neighborhood. In these zip code areas, most residents earn lower than the Boston median household income, most have minority populations, and a major variety of residents are immigrants.

Changes to the bill that passed the House of Representatives included adding Jamaica Plain and Charlestown to the list of zip codes and allowing Brighton's Oak Square to receive three licenses without delay. Reports that some lawmakers were concerned that too many licenses would fall into the hands of only barswhich is why they reserved 15 licenses for “community spaces, including outdoor areas, theaters, and other nonprofit organizations in the City of Boston,” the bill states.

The 198 licenses – including those for the three-year postcode areas, the three for Brighton and the 15 for non-profit organizations and community spaces – are non-transferable, meaning the licenses can’t be sold on the private market and have to be returned to town.

A significant change to this law affected the last seven licenses, which at the moment are unrestricted. That is, they could be utilized in any neighborhood, are transferable, and could be sold on the private market, likely for a whole lot of hundreds of dollars.

The reason lawmakers must go to the Statehouse to grant Boston liquor licenses is due to a 1933 law that limited the variety of liquor licenses available in town to under 1,000. Only in recent a long time, and after much political wrangling, have latest licenses been added to the cap. Now, the variety of licenses available locally for restaurants and bars could also be closer to 1,100.

The license restriction signifies that liquor licenses are rarely available at City Hall for the restaurants and bars that receive approval, so businesses often must turn to the private market to buy a transferable liquor license from one other business, which may cost as much as $600,000.

Despite the inclusion of unrestricted licenses within the bill, which further exacerbates Boston's already oversaturated market with expensive and unaffordable licenses, lawmakers and Mayor Michelle Wu's office reportedly seemed satisfied with the bill's initial passage.

“This legislation will bring about fundamental change by opening up economic opportunities for Boston’s communities of color and providing amenities to underserved neighborhoods,” Worrell said.

The bill now goes to the Senate, where it must pass before it lands on Governor Maura Healey's desk for signature. Healey had previously advocated local control of liquor licenses and even enshrined the liberty of local governments to set their very own cap in her Municipal Empowerment Act. But that freedom was ultimately faraway from the bill in late January.