Despicable Gray Davis will sign illegal alien license bill

(Note: Headline rewritten to be more descriptive of the subject matter. Below is an unaltered Google translation of the headline and the article)

Gray governor Davis commits itself to sign the initiative when they appear it

In the middle of a series of political pressures and facing the possibility of being dismissed during a new election, Gray governor Davis committed itself yesterday to sign the project of law SB60, that would grant license to lead to million undocumented people in California.

?Sólo I am hoping that that project of law arrives at my writing-desk, to sign it, it emphasized Davis before a congregation of union groups in I throw Park.

The news caused joy between union civil employees, activists, leaders and undocumented people of the county of Los Angeles, who are years old fighting because the licenses for the undocumented people are approved.

?Yo I am very happy, because finally is going away to make justice to the undocumented people who works to remove ahead to its families, who requires to have that document to be transported to its works and not to risk to handle without license, it said Gil Cedillo, author of the initiative.

Brown, organizing Ricardo regional of the Coalition for the Defense of the Rights of the Immigrants in Los Angeles (CHIR IT), said on the other hand that now it only hoped that the governor signed that project of law?sin that was done no omission to him.

?No is going to leave later whereupon they must do changes to him; the changes that were due to do already did, and that will consist of checking the antecedents of the applicants, is everything, Colored person said to the Opinion.

He is possible to emphasize that Davis does the announcement two days after the lieutenant governor Bustamante Cross summoned to a special election next the 7 of October, after which groups that are?molestos? with the work of the governor they joined 1,3 million companies to summon to an election.

On the matter Davis said that that call of election?no has nothing to do with him, but with the working-class of California.

?Tiene that to see with the decision to follow ahead or to back down. Because this people who call to a new election, in fact are making a call to stop the progress that we have done four years in the last, the governor said.

Davis mentioned then who who are organizing their destitution is people of high ancestry, to that has not pleased to them that its administration approved the extra payment of time between the workers of the state.

?No they like that we have demanded that the employers give doctor surely to their employees and that one is another one of the causes of this fight, because is unquestionable: who support my destitution wants that we back down, it said.

The governor emphasized then who since he is in the position he has been in favor of the workers, of the education and the medical insurance for the workers and the children.

?Y we continued working, as much that for Sunday [ today ] we are going to have approved the budget, it exposed Davis.

Also, Davis took advantage of to accuse the republican legislators to want to cancel 106.000 million dollars that would be destined to the superior education, besides to cancel the classes for new students in 2004 in the university system CalState to save money.

?Y meanwhile, democratic we want them to increase the bottoms for the education and they want to retire to more than 110 thousand children of kinder, without telling that also they want to reduce a million immunizations, which would affect more than 200 thousand children, he indicated Davis.

And nevertheless?continuo ', (the republicans) they speak to save, but he does not matter to them that they are arranged to spend more than 60 million dollars in making this call to replace to me; since there am saying, he is not this against me, I I am only a human being, but about the direction in which we go.

?Pero I am going to sacrifice the education of our children, neither I am going to sacrifice the medical insurances of our children nor of our workers, because its agenda is not for the working-class, for that reason we must be united and fight against his agenda, the governor finalized in his speech.

Due to being weekend, it was not possible to contact republican civil employees.

Miguel Contreras, president of the Federation of the Work of the County of Los Angeles Afl-cio, said that they supported the work of Davis, because she had always supported to the working-class.

?Un called to a special election is going to us to affect, in addition of which we noticed that governing Davis is making a good work, and now it demonstrates us to it when signing the SB60, that will give licenses us, it concluded Contreras.

The SB60, nevertheless, still must be approved by the state Assembly by then to arrive at the hands of the governor.

?Sólo I am hoping to have it in my writing-desk and I would sign it immediately, Davis finalized.

New regulations for noncitizens create run on driver's licenses
BY LESLEY CLARK, TERE FIGUERAS AND HANNAH SAMPSON
lclark@herald.com

TALLAHASSEE -- Swamped with immigrants rushing to obtain driver's licenses before new anti-terrorism regulations go into effect, the state Thursday hurried to immediately impose the new rules, restricting noncitizens to just four driver's license offices in South Florida.

The change created chaos across Miami-Dade and Broward counties, as confused would-be drivers traveled from one licensing office to another, trying to find the ones that handle noncitizen applications. At one point Thursday, Florida Highway Patrol troopers were summoned for crowd control.

``They were angry because they couldn't get a license on the spot,'' said Sandra Lambert, director of the driver's license division at the state Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles.

The state had been planning to enact the new restrictions next week, but quickly moved up the schedule when it became apparent that people were trying to dodge the change, Lambert said.

``We realized if we waited any longer, hundreds more old-style licenses could be issued,'' she said.

Under the new rules, noncitizens -- including those holding permanent residency ``green cards'' -- who apply for new licenses will get 30-day paper permits while their identification documents are checked. If cleared, they will be mailed licenses that expire at the same time as their visas. Also, noncitizens will no longer be able to renew their licenses or report address changes over the telephone or the Internet.

LIMITED OFFICES

And they can no longer go to any driver's license office. Instead, they can conduct business at only two offices in Miami-Dade and two in Broward, where staffers have been trained by the Immigration and Naturalization Service to recognize altered or counterfeit documents. Those offices also have been supplied with equipment so that the department can keep copies of the documents. Six other offices will accommodate noncitizens outside of South Florida.

Lambert said the department plans to add more offices to handle noncitizen applications as employees undergo training.

There are no estimates on the numbers of non-U.S. citizens in South Florida, though the figure for permanent resident aliens is believed to number in the tens of thousands in Miami-Dade and Broward. And there are about 30,000 to 40,000 Hondurans and Nicaraguans in South Florida with temporary residence and work permits that expire in July 2002.

RUN ON LICENSES

The state agency was tipped off to the run on licenses when they stocked the new application forms in the four South Florida offices on Saturday. As people learned this week that those four offices would give noncitizens only the temporary licenses, they began to flock to the other ones, Lambert said.

``People realized you had to wait to be mailed a [permanent] license at those offices, but word spread that you can get a driver's license on the spot in the other offices,'' she said. ``We had huge lines in the other offices.''

The new regulations were developed afterthe Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to make sure that Florida driver's licenses expire at the same time as foreigner's visas. The changes link the duration of driver's licenses to the expiration of visas and give driver's license officials time to check identification.

``The thinking is that if you no longer have a legal presence in the country, you no longer should be entitled to a driver's license,'' Lambert said.

But the abrupt switch created confusion.

At one of the two offices in Miami-Dade where noncitizens could get licenses, hopeful drivers stretched 40 deep out the front door, spilling into the parking lot.

``I cannot believe this, '' said Peruvian Cintia Celi, sitting in the crowded waiting room at the department's central Miami office at 901 NW 39th Ave., which along with the office at 12601 NW 42nd Ave. in Opa-locka is authorized to handle noncitizen applications.

Celi, who has lived in Coral Gables since she was a teen, had one word to sum up a day spent reinstating her license: ``Hell.''

``I went to a place by my house, and they sent me here,'' said Celi, 25. ``But they didn't tell me I had to bring papers, so I had to go back. Lines all day.''

300 REFERRALS

The office received about 300 referrals from other locations Thursday, said office manager Maritza Zea. That's about twice the numbers her workers see in a typical day. Though the number of employees had been increased to handle the expected influx, there was a backlog by mid-afternoon.

``It's chaos,'' Zea said. ``Just having to make people understand what they need and why they need it.''

In Broward, at the bureau on Pembroke Road and University Drive in Pembroke Pines, lines were not as long as they were last month, according to one mother and daughter who have made three trips to the bureau in recent weeks.

``The last couple of times we were here it has been outrageous,'' said Lin Trahan of Cooper City, whose daughter Sarah, 16, was waiting to get her license.

Workers at the bureau told the two they could try other locations that serve only U.S. citizens if they wanted to avoid longer lines, but the Pembroke Pines location was the most convenient.

It wasn't convenient for Jose Benitez, a permanent resident from Nicaragua. Benitez, a mechanic, lives in Miami and traveled with friend Xilena Mariano to three different offices Thursday.

The first, on Coral Reef Drive in South Miami-Dade, didn't give licenses to noncitizens. The second, on LeJeune Road, said it was too busy, so Benitez, who has lived in the country for 17 years, went to Pembroke Pines to renew his license. ``This is very different than what we're used to,'' Mariano said.

Chinese-born Neo Mi didn't have to renew his license -- yet. He was accompanying a fellow countrywoman as she took her test at the Northwest 39th Avenue office.

``She went in there at 8 a.m.,'' he said at 3 p.m, waiting in the crowded parking lot. ``I haven't seen her since.''

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