THE CONFLICT: IMMIGRANT DRIVERS’ LICENSES (7/2002)
It is estimated that at least one million illegal immigrants are driving vehicles in California. Without a driver’s license, they are also driving without insurance for their vehicle. Should the state accept proof of identity other than social security numbers in order to license these defacto drivers while forcing them to buy insurance policies?
In January of 1992, the state of California amended its Vehicle Code in section 1653.5, authorizing and requiring the Department of Motor Vehicles to collect and maintain a database of social security numbers for all driver’s license applicants. The stated purpose of amassing this personal data was to help the government track down noncustodial parents who were failing to make child support payments as well as persons with outstanding tax debt, unpaid fines, bail or vehicle parking penalties.
In 1993, State Senator Al Alquist (D) pushed through SB 976 to prevent undocumented immigrants from obtaining driver’s licenses or state-issued identification cards. A year later, Proposition 187, which sought to deny undocumented immigrants access to health care and public schooling, was passed by California voters. It was later determined to be unconstitutional.
The category of undocumented or illegal immigrants includes persons who have overstayed their visas, temporary residents who perform seasonal labor in the United States and persons who are applying or have applied for legal residency.
The National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences reported in 1997 that nearly half of the illegal immigrants in the U.S. had entered legally with visas while most of the remaining population had entered illegally through the American southwest border with Mexico.
An estimated 2 million illegal residents lived in California as of October 1996, according to the most recent report from the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The majority of these migrants are from Mexico and enter the U.S. to work either in California’s agricultural Central Valley or in the service industries surrounding and within Los Angeles.
In both rural areas and the greater Los Angeles area, the use of a vehicle for transportation is almost always a given. As a result of this dependence on automobiles, it is estimated that at least one million immigrants without legal residency are driving vehicles in California. Without social security numbers and proof of legal residency, these drivers are without a driver’s license and, as a result, cannot obtain an insurance policy for their vehicle.
The public safety implications of this circumstance are manifold. Unable to apply for a license, these drivers are likely untrained in the traffic laws of California. As many police departments do not enforce immigration laws in order to effectively address more pressing public safety concerns, an unlicensed driver is also an impediment to non-immigration law enforcement and criminal investigations. Finally, unlicensed drivers cannot abide by the state’s requirement to insure their own vehicle thus possibly discouraging them from remaining at the scene of an accident and/or severely limiting their ability to compensate another party.
There are also financial implications beyond the scope of accidents. Should the DMV’s requirements be modified, there would likely be a financial windfall for auto insurance and automobile vendors, as when banks in California began to accept foreign consulate identification papers for establishing checking and savings accounts.
This is the context for a national campaign now several years in the making to alter the requirements for obtaining a driver’s license in order to accommodate undocumented immigrants. While such laws have already been passed in North Carolina, Tennessee and Utah and are under development in Texas, Illinois, Colorado, Nevada and Georgia, California has yet to settle on an approach that satisfies both public safety advocates, immigrant’s rights groups and those opposed to immigration in general and/or concessions to illegal immigrants, in particular.
In 1999, then State Senator Hilda Solis (D) introduced SB 371 which would have offered 90-day temporary driver’s licenses without proof of legal residency to persons who passed the usual tests. At the same time, State Assembly Member Gil Cedillo (D) successfully campaigned for two even more pointed bills modifying the social security requirement for driver’s licenses: AB 1463 and AB 407. Governor Gray Davis would veto all three bills, ending with AB 1463 in 2000, citing concerns about identity fraud.
According to Davis, “Requiring the DMV to issue a driver’s license card merely on the basis of the applicant providing a ‘receipt’ from the INS that an application for lawful immigration status has been initiated is an invitation to fraud.” Three months after this statement, Cedillo introduced AB 60, which addresses the Governor’s stated concerns by restricting licenses to those who have begun legalizing their status, have no criminal records, can provide a federal taxpayer identification number in lieu of a Social Security number and have lived in the state several years.
AB 60 has been passed and it is now in Cedillo’s hands to find the appropriate time, after September 11 (PDF), to present it to Governor — and gubernatorial candidate — Davis.
Assemblymember Gil Cedillo, (D) of Los Angeles, has championed three bills that would allow undocumented immigrants to obtain California driver’s licenses. Two of these have been vetoed by Governor Gray Davis (D) but the third, AB 60, may fare better due to its security considerations. Cedillo’s former colleague Hilda Solis (D), now a United States congresswoman, introduced a somewhat similar bill in 1999, also vetoed by Davis. Former Speaker of the Assembly and defeated Los Angeles mayoral candidate Antonio Villaraigosa (D) has been an active proponent of these bills. Cedillo’s latest bill is endorsed by the Lieutenant Governor, Cruz Bustamante (D).
The National Immigration Law Center is one of several national and state non-profit groups advocating on behalf of immigrants and in favor of driver’s licenses for unauthorized residents. They are joined by groups like the National Council of La Raza, the California Catholic Conference, the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium, the Korean American Coalition, and the Mexican American Legal Defense & Educational Fund in their efforts. Although these groups have varying agendas, origins and power, they emphasize the license measure as a way to stabilize the status quo in which illegal immigrants are present but not recognized.
The Los Angeles Police Protective League, a 9,000 member union of Los Angeles police officers is one of several public safety agencies in support of driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants. Other agencies like the City of Sacramento Police Department, the California Professional Firefighters union and even the State Franchise Tax Board also coincide on this issue, along with law enforcement authorities in other states, citing a need to be able to register all members of the public in order to achieve their public safety mandate. They contend that drivers, regardless of their status vis a vis the Immigration and Naturalization Service, should be licensed by the state.
Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation, and Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce are two of the biggest commercial interests invested in securing driver’s licenses for the estimated million undocumented immigrants who drive to work each day. These urban financial magnates are joined by the California Farm Bureau Federation and the Agricultural Council of California in support of AB 60. According to researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, the portion of California agricultural crop workers who are not authorized to work legally in the U.S. jumped from nine percent in 1990 to 43 percent in 1997. Auto insurance vendors also have a stake in this debate as is evinced by the endorsement of the Fremont Insurance Compensation Group and the Insurance Agents and Brokers Legislative Council.
The California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO is one of various labor unions also endorsing AB 60, including the obvious United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO, the government’s own California State Employees Association along with the California State Council of Laborers and, notably, the California Teamsters. For years, the Teamsters have been high-profile critics of the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and its promise of Mexican — and Canadian — truck drivers working on U.S. highways without U.S. driver’s licenses.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform opposes AB 60, calling it “a product of the illegal alien lobby and pro-illegal alien members of the state legislature.” FAIR contends that driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants, under any condition, are tantamount to “giving the false appearance of legal residence to the illegal alien,” frustrating efforts by the INS, law enforcement agencies and employers to properly identify illegal immigrants. They also argue that such licenses would be based on counterfeit identification papers produced by immigrants and that illegal immigrants are “generally less experienced drivers, more often uninsured and who are more likely to be hit-and-run drivers when they cause an accident.” They are joined by Voices of Citizens Together now known as American Patrol and the research and policy-oriented Center for Immigration Studies.
Those against might say:
Undocumented immigrants are present illegally in the U.S. and have no right to live and/or work in California. Moreover, U.S. courts have established that driving is a privilege not an inalienable right and cannot be granted to a person who is in violation of federal immigration law. Granting undocumented immigrants with a legal form of identification provides them with a cloak of legality that obscures their actual legal status as unauthorized residents. An untrained DMV staff may admit false documentation supplied by an illegal immigrant, especially when such documents are issued by a foreign government or as limited, agency-specific identification such as the Internal Revenue Service’s Individual Taxpayer Identification Number. An illegal immigrant with a driver’s license could use this documentation to receive government benefits by impersonating a legal resident or citizen.
Those in favor might say:
All California drivers should be licensed, regardless of their status with the INS. The Zogby poll that cites public opposition to this measure asked voters if they would support the bill knowing that driver’s licenses make it easier for immigrants to collect welfare even though the screening process for public benefits includes proof of legal residency or citizenship (PDF). Many foreign governments are willing and able to properly authenticate their citizens in the U.S. for purposes of establishing their identity. Thus, California driver’s licenses would actually allow government agencies to effectively identify undocumented immigrants and obviate the demand for counterfeit licenses or identity cards. AB 60 specifically calls for the use of a taxpayer identification number, proof of a petition to the INS for legal residency status and would issue a limited, three-year license.
Excerpts from An act to amend Sections 1653.5, 12800, 12801, 12801.5, and 12801.8 of, and to add Section 15201.1 to, the Vehicle Code, relating to the Department of Motor Vehicles: Existing law requires the department to require every application for a driver’s license to contain the applicant’s social security number and any other number or identifier determined to be appropriate by the department. This bill would revise these provisions to specify that if an applicant submits an affidavit signed under penalty of perjury, that he or she does not possess a social security number, and submits a federal taxpayer identification number, or other identifier, that is determined appropriate by the department, the submission of those documents shall be acceptable to the department until the applicant obtains a social security number.
March 26th, 2006 at 4:26 pm
[…] al immigration has been a hotly contested debate especially since then Gov. Davis granting Illegal Immigrants Drivers Licenses. The much touted accomplishment of Sen. Gil Cedillo were s […]