If you live in California, or even if you don’t and you care about illegal immigration then please start contacting the state Assembly about this idiotic bill:
The latest attempt to provide driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants passed the state Senate on Thursday, after proponents tied the measure to the state’s compliance with a new federal law intended to deter terrorists.
The bill by Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, includes provisions that restrict how the licenses can be used and what they would look like. Cedillo said the federal law signed by President Bush last month forced him to accept restrictions he previously rejected.
The measure passed 22-16, sending it to the Assembly.
The federal REAL ID Act requires states to verify that people who apply for a driver’s license are in the country legally. But it also gives states a choice of whether to issue “driving only” licenses to illegal immigrants, as long as those licenses are marked by color or design as being different from a regular license. They also must state that the license cannot be used as an official identification card.
“This bill is about public safety. Millions of Californians are in jeopardy every day” from illegal immigrants who lack driver training and insurance, said Sen. Richard Alarcon, D-Van Nuys, whose son was killed by an uninsured driver.
Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Northridge, accused proponents of using the federal law to disguise their attempts to give licenses to illegal immigrants. The federal deadline for adopting regulations isn’t until January 2009.
“It is not about public safety … it’s about illegal immigration,” said McClintock, who voted against the bill.
He said passing the measure means that “it’s the official policy of our state to ignore federal immigration law. … We are accommodating them in the violation of federal law.”
So our state will just ignore that these people are here ILLEGALLY! They are breaking our laws and we will reward them with letting them drive, WTF is that?
Thankfully Arnie looks like he wont be supporting it for now:
While the law meets the governor’s 2004 demand that a license for undocumented immigrants be substantially different from a standard license, he feels Cedillo is moving too fast to gain his support.
Julie Soderlund, a Schwarzenegger spokeswoman, said the Department of Homeland Security has yet to set out driver’s license rules for the states to follow, including rules on how licenses for undocumented immigrants should be marked.
“These regulations still have to be developed, therefore the governor feels that it would be premature to develop to these guidelines,” she said.
A Cedillo bill that would have allowed undocumented immigrants to receive a full-fledged license passed the Legislature last year, but Schwarzenegger refused to sign it, citing security concerns. When Congress’ new regulations took the full-fledged license idea off the table, Cedillo devised his new bill as a “silver lining.”
Read about this bill here. The Senate passed the bill already so we need to contact those in the Assembly ASAP.
Check out The Immigration Blog and The California Conservative for more.
See author page