Wanted: Legal licenses to drive

Maria Guerrero said she gets "chicken skin," or goose bumps, when a police cruiser pulls up next to her minivan at a stoplight.

"Sometimes I wave to police and say hello," said Guerrero, who lives in Boulder. "If I'm nervous, I'm scared they'll notice."

Many immigrants, like Guerrero, who are here illegally drive to jobs and take their children to school. Many go to grocery stores late at night to reduce the risk of accidents or chance encounters with police, who could expose their secret.

"We have no option," said Guerrero, who drives even though she was put on probation after an accident a couple of months ago. "We have to drive."

She, and many others, do not have driver's licenses. And without driver's licenses, most insurance companies will not insure them.

Boulder County Sheriff George Epp said he sees several reports each year of deputies pulling over cars and occupants spilling out, running into bushes.

"Frequently, when an illegal alien is involved in a traffic accident, they take off, which makes things worse. Or when we stop them for a violation, they sometimes take off," Epp said. "I think it's an area that needs some discussion. There's obvious problems. But there is a conflict between immigration laws and state laws.

"Could you really allow someone to drive who isn't legally supposed to live in your country?"

A bill proposed by Sen. Ron Tupa , D-Boulder, would do just that by relaxing state requirements so illegal immigrants wouldn't have to present a Social Security number when applying for a driver's license or identification card.

Immigrant rights groups in Boulder County, Denver and Colorado Springs that lobbied for the bill said the reality is that illegal immigrants are here and driving.

They say amending the laws could lead to testing and training of more drivers, help law enforcement agencies track more bad drivers, cut insurance costs, relieve overburdened traffic courts, benefit the justice system by fingerprinting, photographing and identifying more people and assist migrant workers who provide low-wage services that most Americans count on.

But critics say driver's licenses give illegal immigrants undeserved rights, granting holders a presumption of citizenship.

They also say relaxing the licensing laws would make it more difficult for authorities to do criminal background checks, which rely on state and federal documents, such as birth certificates or Social Security cards. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, now is not the time to weaken security, they say.

Latino groups and Tupa say issuing driver's licenses will not give undocumented people any new legal rights. Besides, Tupa said, illegal immigration is a federal problem. "We're addressing the state issue of public safety," he said.

There aren't many statistics on the number of illegal immigrants driving without licenses. What is known is that the Immigration and Naturalization Service estimates there are about 50,000 illegal immigrants in Colorado who could be eligible for licenses under the changes proposed.

Colorado ranks 16th nationally in the percentage of drivers who don't have licenses or whose licenses have been suspended or revoked and who were involved in fatal crashes, according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, a nonprofit organization focusing on traffic-safety research and education.

Nationally, 20 percent — or one in five — of all fatal car crashes involve at least one driver improperly licensed.

In Boulder, police issued 685 citations in 2001 to motorists who didn't have driver's licenses, police Records Supervisor James Cho said.

The Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association refuses to take a position on the driver's license debate. But Executive Director Carole Walker said the law would make it easier for illegal immigrants to get insurance, because most companies do not insure people who don't have driver's licenses.

She estimates that 18 percent to 25 percent of Colorado drivers do not have car insurance, compared to 14 percent nationally.

Rene Gutierrez, 28, of Longmont doesn't have a Colorado license but has been driving since he came from Mexico two years ago. He drives to work at a soybean processing factory in the day and to his other job cleaning offices at night.

Gutierrez said he pays $300 a month to insure his Ford Focus. A Longmont insurance agency was the only one that would accept him after a long search, Gutierrez said.

He has a Mexican driver's license, which he carries in his wallet although he can't legally use it here. He said he does so because he thinks it might influence authorities — should he get pulled over — showing them that he would like to follow state law and get a driver's license.

Two years ago, Gutierrez said, he took his Mexican passport to the Boulder and Longmont branches of the state Motor Vehicle Division to try to get a license. He was sent away from both places because he did not have a Social Security card, Gutierrez said.

"Without a driver's license, people are reduced to the very, very margins of this society," said Lisa Duran of Rights for All People, an 8-year-old immigrant rights group in Denver.

Other states that have relaxed their driver's license requirements include Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Utah.

Under Tupa's proposal, clauses in state law that discourage the Division of Motor Vehicles from issuing driver's license to illegal immigrants would be stricken.

Driver's license applicants also would be allowed to use an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number — issued by the Internal Revenue Service — in place of a Social Security number.

The taxpayer numbers, first available in 1996, are used by some illegal immigrants who don't have Social Security numbers to file taxes. The numbers do not give Social Security benefits, change immigration status or grant the right to work in the United States.

Rep. Frana Mace, D-Denver, co-sponsor of Tupa's bill, is sponsoring a similar measure to allow Mexican immigrants to use the Matricula Consular identification card, issued by Mexican consulates as proof of identification, for obtaining driver's licenses.

But Mace's proposal would not prevent the Division of Motor Vehicles from discriminating against people here illegally.

Officials from the Consulate of Mexico in Denver support Tupa's bill, saying driver's licenses increase public safety and give state authorities more information on who's on the roads, help more people get car insurance, reduce the use of fake licenses and help the economy.

While the Colorado Department of Revenue does not estimate how much it could gain if illegal immigrants were allowed to obtain licenses, if the entire estimated population of undocumented Colorado residents got licenses it would amount to $780,000 — at the current $15.60 fee — or almost 6 percent of the $14 million the state received in driver's license fees in fiscal 2001.

U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Littleton, wants tighter immigration laws and opposes Tupa's proposal, or any like it in the nation.

Tancredo disputes the argument that issuing more licenses would make the roads safer.

"We can simply eliminate any requirement for driver's licenses, and then no one would be driving illegally," he said.

He contends driver's licenses are the gateway into U.S. society and they should only be granted to legal residents.

But Guerrero, the Boulder woman who has been driving sparingly for six years without a license, said Tupa's bill is a human rights issue worth fighting for — worth giving up even her anonymity as an illegal immigrant.

"If people work together to change the law, I believe it will happen," she said. "We have to change the law."

Laurie Herndon, a Boulder immigration lawyer and member of the board of directors for El Centro Amistad, the Boulder County Immigrant Rights Center, first approached Tupa about carrying the bill.

"Regardless of what a community member feels of federal law declaring they shouldn't be here, they are here," Herndon said of illegal immigrants. "And what is the impact of these people driving on Colorado roads without licenses, without insurance? What is the benefit and the cost to our community if these people get licenses?

"I propose the cost is zero and the benefit is very high. I think insurance costs would be lowered. I think our courts system would be less clogged."

While some have said issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants will help them obtain jobs, Herndon said, licenses are not a legal requirement to get a job and employers should not be asking for them.

Whatever the pros and cons, Jason King, spokesman for the national Association of Motor Vehicles Administrators, said any bill that proposes to relax state requirements for immigrants faces a tough road in the post-Sept. 11 world.

For example, King said, North Carolina, once lax in its proof-of-residency requirements for driver's licenses, recently tightened its rules.

"Since Sept. 11, you're seeing a renewed trend toward safety of the highways and security within the division of motor vehicles," he said.

He contends driver's licenses are the gateway into U.S. society and they should only be granted to legal residents.

Why is this concept so hard to understand.

I say give 'em a driver's license!

Good for a one-time, one-way trip south. (Turn it in at the border, please.)

America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
Download 8 Mb zip file here (60 minute video)

I had an illegal alien hit me once. (He was from this planet, but that's as far as I go with that.) They took him away in cuffs, and I was left with the deductible, which of course my insurance company was never able to get from him.

In retrospect, I got the better deal, but I was still out the money through no fault of my own. I recovered; I hope the other guy has by now too. It hurt him a lot more than it did me. The preceding is my patented methodology for dealing with the bitter rage of having been slammed by an illegal alien. In the long run, it's much better than being overly pi$$ed at the injustice.

Many immigrants, like Guerrero, who are here illegally drive to jobs and take their children to school.

"We have no option," said Guerrero, who drives even though she was put on probation after an accident a couple of months ago. "We have to drive."

Option #1: Go Home

Option #2: Take the bus. (plenty of citizens do this every day)

Option #3: Enter this country legally. (Legal residents should be allowed to get temporary licenses to drive during the length of thier legal visit only)

Three very real and workable options. I don't understand, though, why she wasn't departed after the accident. This makes no sense!

It never ceases to amaze me when I go to the Secretary of State the amount of people there who cannot only not speak English but cannot even read it and yet there they are applying for their driver's licenses. Of course, they are completely aided by a staff of translators and tests written only in their language. Fine and well, but what happens when they hit the pavement and cannot read the signs?

Fine and well, but what happens when they hit the pavement and cannot read the signs?

The important ones (Stop, Yield etc), they should recognize by the shape. As for Exit and regular street signs, who knows?

It's really bad in FL, as well. Most of what you hear is Spanish.

Not only is a drivers licence becoming an entitlement, a car and insurance is too. A friend sold a car not long ago, and was contatcted by a workfare person who told him that the state (PA) was going to buy her a car, pay for insurance for 2 years, and pay to have the car fixed if it broke!

"Frequently, when an illegal alien is involved in a traffic accident, they take off, which makes things worse.

I have seen this happen twice in Dallas. Once there was an accident in front of my place and the male Mexican driver took off down the street and left a woman and a baby sitting in the car. Real Macho of him don't you think?

But I have to have a SS number to get a drivers license. I guess that is because I am nothing but a legal citizen that hasn't reached the elite status of illegal alien yet. But that day may not be too far in the future!!

Don't forget Motor Voter either. By getting a drivers license, this will also get them a Voters Registration card which will allow them (Illegal aliens) to vote in our elections.

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