Thread: NM: Donnybrook looms over immigration license issue

New Mexico: Donnybrook looms over immigration license issue

El Paso Times (Texas)
July 19, 2011 Tuesday
By Milan Simonich \ Texas-New Mexico Newspapers
SANTA FE, NM

Redistricting will be the biggest battle of September in the state Legislature, but not the only one.

Another knockdown debate over the law that allows illegal immigrants to obtain New Mexico driver's licenses is shaping up as the secondary skirmish.

Republican Gov. Susana Martinez earlier this year lost a legislative fight to outlaw driver's licenses for those without proof of immigration status. She plans to try again in just a matter of weeks.

"The governor does intend to put driver's license legislation on the call for the special session," said Greg Blair, a spokesman for Martinez.

Sen. Richard Martinez, an Espanola Democrat who often is at odds with Gov. Martinez, last week said he suspected that a state police investigation of 64,000 registered voters was tied to the governor's continued attempt to deny driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.

The investigation began with a comparison of motor vehicle and voter registration records by Secretary of State Dianna Duran. Duran, a Republican, said her staff flagged the records of 37 people who could have voted improperly, including some who may have been in the country illegally.

Duran later sent the names of those 37 voters and more than 63,000 others to state police because she said they needed "further review" by trained investigators. The police inquiry of voter records is ongoing.

Probe of voters

Richard Martinez sponsored the 2003 law that enabled illegal immigrants to obtain New Mexico driver's licenses.

He speculated last week that the governor was behind the investigation of voters and that Duran was fronting for it "as her puppet to repeal the driver's license bill."

Duran, sitting before Richard Martinez, told him he had repeated a rumor devoid of any truth.

The investigation of voters, Duran said, was her idea to make sure voter rolls were accurate.

Gov. Martinez had nothing to do with it, she said.

But the governor is zealous about ending driver's licenses for illegal immigrants.

New Mexico is one of only three states with such a law.

Washington also licenses illegal immigrants and Utah issues them permits good for driving but not as government-issued identification.

Security mentioned

Gov. Martinez said issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants greatly weakens border and national security.

Almost as important to her, the licensing system is an administrative headache for the state Motor Vehicles Division.

Even illegal immigrants must live in New Mexico to legally obtain a state driver's license.

But illegal immigrants from other states travel to New Mexico to try to get a driver's license, seeing the state as an easy mark, said state Rep. Andy Nunez.

Nunez sponsored a bill earlier this year to stop licensing illegal immigrants.

"With a driver's license, they legitimize themselves and then go anywhere in the country," said Nunez, an independent from Hatch.

In wintertime, after a 14-hour debate across two days, Nunez's bill to end the licensing program cleared the House of Representatives with ease, 42-28.

But then the Senate rewrote Nunez's bill to take the teeth out of it. Gov. Martinez promoted his bill with all her power, but it died in the Senate.

Richard Martinez and fellow Democrats control the Senate, 27-15. For the most part, they stuck together to stifle Gov. Martinez on the licensing bill.

Nothing has changed, so the governor will have an uphill fight if she revives the bill so soon after its defeat.

She will also face criticism if she tries to push the licensing repeal as the Legislature wrestles with redistricting, the paramount issue of fall.

All 112 state legislative districts must be redrawn to account for population growth and shifts.

In addition, legislators must redraw the three U.S. congressional districts and the five districts of the state Public Regulation Commission.

With all of that to do, Richard Martinez and other Democrats say they hope the governor will not press for a new and costly debate over driver's licenses.

Rep. Debbie Rodella of Espanola and other Democrats on the Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee asked Duran to complete the investigation of voters before the special session begins.

They said they do not want the inquiry to cloud the fall legislative session.

Duran, though, made no promise of when the investigation would conclude. She only said she hoped it would be soon.

Santa Fe Bureau Chief Milan Simonich maybe reached at msimonich@tnmnp.com

http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/En ... 85&start=4

Sen. Richard Martinez, an Espanola Democrat who often is at odds with Gov. Martinez, last week said he suspected that a state police investigation of 64,000 registered voters was tied to the governor's continued attempt to deny driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.

The investigation began with a comparison of motor vehicle and voter registration records by Secretary of State Dianna Duran. Duran, a Republican, said her staff flagged the records of 37 people who could have voted improperly, including some who may have been in the country illegally.

So a Democrat knows that people voted illegally using drivers license but is against denying drivers license to illegals...

I wonder which party those possible illegal 64,000 register voters are a part of.