Posted on 09/30/2002 10:00:19 PM PDT by heleny
Governor vetoes undocumented driver's license bill
By DON THOMPSON
Associated Press Writer
Gov. Gray Davis vetoed legislation letting some illegal immigrants obtain California driver's licenses Monday, as he completed action on some of the most controversial bills sent to his desk this fall.
The governor's politically charged decision forced him to weigh what he said were increased security risks from licensing non-citizens after last year's terrorist attacks against the urging of immigrant rights groups that said it would make California's highways safer.
Davis demanded a series of safeguards, including fingerprint background checks and cooperation with the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service.
That angered Hispanic groups vital to his re-election campaign. Earlier in the day, however, Davis signed legislation supported by Hispanic groups giving increased bargaining power to farmworkers.
Legislators reluctantly amended the driver's license bill to comply with the governor's concerns as they rushed to adjourn a month ago.
But Davis enumerated five specific loopholes in addition to a handful of other areas where he said the language still fell short of what he had requested. Without those safeguards, Davis said the bill was too dangerous.
"The tragedy of Sept. 11 made it abundantly clear that the driver's license is more than just a license to drive; it is one of the primary documents we use to identify ourselves," Davis said in his veto message. "Unfortunately, a driver's license was in the hands of terrorists who attacked America on that fateful day."
The bill's author, Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, had said the revised legislation should have been enough to not only satisfy Davis, but was actually improved by lawmakers.
California highways would be safer by having all drivers trained and insured, said proponents. But in addition to Davis' security concerns, opponents complained licenses encouraged illegal immigration and gave a state privilege to lawbreakers.
Davis had until midnight Monday to act on the legislation, which took on huge symbolic importance for immigrants, particularly groups representing California's large Mexican population.
Cedillo initially estimated as many as 1 million of the state's roughly 3 million undocumented immigrants would be eligible, though his staff subsequently acknowledged the actual number could be far lower.
Just 130,000 people applied to adjust their status to permanent residents or extend temporary visitor visas in all of California, Hawaii, Nevada and Arizona over the last year, according to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
What happens is, the alien commits a crime and is arrested. Our (the INS) Criminal Investigators or Immigration Agents are supposed to visit the local jails and see if their are any illegals. If they find one, they serve a detainer to the local authorities, that requires them to contact the INS when the alien is to be released. At that time the INS goes and picks up the alien and takes the alien into INS custody for the INS violation.
I would bet that this is what happened in these cases.
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