Posted on 08/22/2003 11:40:17 AM PDT by from this machine
The bill to issue driver licenses to undocumented immigrants on Thursday went to the plenary of the California state legislature and its sponsor, Sen. Gil Cedillo, said that if approved, it would be sent immediately to the Senate.
Cedillo, a Los Angeles Democrat, said that he intended to submit the bill this week for approved by Gov. Gray Davis, also a Democrat, who agreed to sign it as soon as he receives it.
He said that the bill had quickly surmounted the problems it had encountered in the past.
The Appropriations Committee approved the bill Wednesday with an amendment requiring the undocumented to be fingerprinted, with the prints being kept in the data banks of security agencies.
Opponents of the bill, such as the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, maintain that to issue licenses to the undocumented would allow them to live in the state with many of the benefits enjoyed by legal residents and citizens.
Coalition head Barbara Coe recently said that the licenses would be like "awards" for violators of immigration laws.
But Davis, who agreed to approve the bill at a meeting with Latino leaders of southern California and the Mexican American Political Association (MAPA), agreed to sign the bill noting that it was a reward for the work and contributions of the immigrants to the state's economy.
The chairman of the William C. Velasquez Hispanic electoral organization, Antonio Gonzalez, said enacting the license bill would also help the governor's efforts against the October recall referendum.
"Comparing the numbers of Hispanics who voted for Davis in 1998 and last November, we see that the governor lost 200,000 Latino votes in his reelection, mostly because he refused to sign the license bill," said Gonzalez.
Unofficially, the bill would help around two million immigrants, but Cedillo says that its greatest achievement would be to provide security to all Californians.
Undocumented immigrants are unable to arrange for liability insurance because they lack valid California driver licenses.
It was former Gov. Pete Wilson, currently advising movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger in his bid to replace Davis in the upcoming recall election, who ordered the Motor Vehicle Department not to issue licenses to people unable to produce Social Security cards.
My friends eventually subdued the man as I called the police department demanding that they arrest him. I smirked with glee when the cops finally arrived to take him into custody. I hoped his license would be revoked. Then I realized he probably had none and his only punishment would be deportation.
Is that a call for allowing ILLEGALS to have licenses?
Absolutely not.
I say keep them out of the country and they cannot crash into cars.
Wanna bet when he starts speaking Spanish to Anglos?
You know anyone in California who drives for a living? Trucks? Pizza delivery? Warn them they will lose their jobs, or must accept minimum wage, or less.
That's the big money behind this scam, fronted by middle-class "ethnic" lobby groups in partnership or otherwise funded with certain industries.
It's just another profit-enhancing (short term) agenda gussied up as charity and concern. A market strategy changing laws to depress wages. Since the people most effected in California will be disproportionately latino it is arguably, and should be argued as, a racist, not anti-racist policy.
The flawed logic is unbelievably f'd up.
Why aren't the ILLEGLAS deported? They wouldn't need liability insurance if they weren't here and driving in the first place. First drivers licences, then what? Voter registrations? These ignorant conniving rat politicians are vile. Damn, it makes me angry.
Yesterday's Merc News..
Page 13A of yesterday's fish wrap.. Last paragraph of an article by Lori Aratani titled "Ueberroth relies on tax amnesty"
Ueberroth said he supports a measure that would grant drivers licenses to illegal immigrants that is awaiting Gov. Davis' signature. He said, however, he has not yet taken a stand on the Racial Privacy Initiative, a measure to limit state officials from collecting racial data.
What's Arnold's position?
Those claiming ILLEGAL aliens contribute more than they take please provide RELIABLE sources. Good liuck. There are none.
RE: Prop 187 "deemed 'unconstitutional' by a liberal judge"
That judge sat on Prop 187 for almost four years denying Gov. Wilson the opportunity to defend the voters. She ruled in 1998 the year Davis was elected. Davis refused to support an appeal of the judge's long-delayed decision. We tried a recall then. Finally it's working.
Exactly right. This has been a high-priority goal of CA Democrats because it will give them an unbeatable election majority in the state. I have to give Davis credit for vetoing it the first time around, but he now appears to be ready to do any long-term damage possible to California by signing every crazy left-wing bill the radical legislature sends him.
So, the solution is to sign up as many border-jumpers as you can by giving them driver's licenses...thereby making it easier for them to vote. Yeah, that's legal. {sarcasm}
What's the matter, Dems? Are you running out of dead people to register?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.