Gretchen Whitmer Quotes

Becoming a resident of a state may confer the right to get a driver's license, but it does not and should not confer citizenship.

Citizens will be disenfranchised by the law instead of served by it, and that historical progress toward a more perfect union will go backwards instead of forward.

Yeah. I mean, it just seemed to me that it was - I felt so helpless to this business of not having any papers. That seems like a throwback to a schoolboy.

I'm no different from anybody else. If I don't have a card, I can't check out these books.

Registering people to vote is not partisan activity.

I can go to my own opening, and the security guard will tell me that I have to go to the security entrance.

To me, it's so much about doing your homework, going into a situation, getting to know the subject, making them feel comfortable, getting intimate access, getting access to all different aspects of people's lives so that I am essentially telling an entire story and not just a single image.

Among other things, the Real ID Act sets minimum security criteria that states would have to meet to have their driver's licenses accepted as identification to board a commercial flight or enter federal facilities.

For the undocumented immigrants, the big priority is just to get out from the shadows, be able to get a driver's license, buy an airplane ticket and stop worrying about sudden deportation. But for the country as a whole, it's crucial that everybody have a citizen's stake in the nation's welfare.

Disabled people should have the same access to democracy as everybody else.

There is a citizenship of the United States, and a citizenship of a State, which are distinct from each other, and which depend upon different characteristics or circumstances in the individual.

Either one is French and can vote, or one is not French and cannot vote.

It was the 31st of August in 1962 that eighteen of us traveled twenty-six miles to the county courthouse in Indianola to try to register to become first-class citizens. We was met in Indianola by policemen, Highway Patrolmen, and they only allowed two of us in to take the literacy test at the time.

We are, after all, a nation of laws. And we live in a culture where carrying a form of identification is as normal as keeping your car keys in your pocket. When any of us walk into a grocery store and cashes a check, no one skips a beat when asked to present our driver's license.

You have to have your wallet for security reasons. I'm the governor. And I had to have money. I had to buy something to eat. You have to have identification.

When it comes to free speech and participation in the democratic process, our laws should reflect the goal of making it easier for more citizens to engage.

Why do I need I.D. to get I.D.? If I had I.D. I wouldn't need I.D.

I think what he [Donald Trump] has said is that people are not going to be eligible for legalization or citizenship unless they leave the country and get back in line.

It's inconceivable that you don't have to show identification in order to vote or that that the identification doesn't have to be somewhat foolproof.

Like other undocumented people in this country, I want a green card, and I want a driver's license, and I want a passport. What, to me, is the immigration bill? It's a green card, a driver's license, and a passport. That's what it's about to me, tangibly. That I could see my mom. That I could drive. Is there anything more American than driving? That I could get a green card and be able to - right now, I'm just like freelancing and working as an independent contractor. It's hilarious. I'm unhirable.

Why did I become a Canadian citizen? Not because I was rejecting being a U.S. citizen. At the time when I became a Canadian citizen, you couldn't be a dual citizen. Now you can. So I had to be one or the other. But the reason I became a Canadian citizen was because it simply seemed so abnormal to me not to be able to vote.

In democracy both a deep reverence and a sense of the comic are requisite.

Citizenship means standing up for everyone's right to vote.***

There is one privilege we'll never lose; currently it's called nationality. It means that everyone was born somewhere, which is infact self-evident.

The vote has been costly. Prize it...understand what it means and what it can do for your country.