AUGUSTA — Today the The Maine Civil Liberties Union plans to join with religious leaders and civil rights advocates to testify before the Transportation Committee of the Legislature in opposition to LD 2309, the Department of Homeland Security driver license bill, said the group’s executive director, Shenna Bellows.

The hearing is scheduled in Statehouse room 126 at 1 p.m. in Room 126 State House, she said. A work session is scheduled immediately following the hearing.

“Unlike most bills that come before the Legislature, this bill comes not from Maine constituents but from the federal government in the form of a mandate from the Department of Homeland Security,” Bellows said. “No other state was threatened by DHS with the specter of citizens unable to fly or enter federal buildings if they did not pass radical statutory changes.”

The Maine Civil Liberties Union is a member of the Maine Immigrants Rights Coalition, which includes partners like Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, the Maine People’s Alliance, the NAACP Portland Branch, and Tengo Voz, all of whom will testify against LD 2309 today, Bellows said.

“Preventing immigrants from getting driver licenses is not going to protect our roads, and it will not protect us from terrorism,” said Bellows. “What LD 2309 does accomplish is to continue a regrettable practice of demonizing immigrants in times of national emergency.”