http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs ... 023/NEWS07

Driver's license elusive for many immigrants
By SUZAN CLARKE, STEVE LIEBERMAN AND LEAH RAE
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original Publication: August 20, 2006)


Spring Valley Police Officer Scott Van Syckle keeps a book full of IDs handed to officers during traffic stops and accidents, and it's an increasingly puzzling assortment.

There are foreign voter cards, out-of-state driver's licenses, fake IDs and bogus "international" identification cards. One woman paid $100 a month for a card labeled "International Citizen."

"One People. One Planet. One future under God," the card reads.

Despite the optimistic slogan, the reality is a little more complicated for immigrants who want to drive in New York.

During the past five years, a crackdown by the state Department of Motor Vehicles has made it harder for foreign-born residents, particularly illegal immigrants, to obtain or renew driver's licenses. Local police and prosecutors say the change is visible when they stop drivers for traffic violations.

"We're seeing a lot more out-of-state licenses for the immigrants than we are seeing New York licenses for them, because New York has been imposing new requirements," New Rochelle police Sgt. Myron Joseph said. "There's not too much we can do. As long as they present the license, a valid license from a different state, we have to honor it."

North Carolina is famous for its lax rules for obtaining licenses, and for being a destination for immigrants in need of them. In New York, the combination of required IDs shuts out applicants who can't prove their status and visa holders with less than six months left.

A 2004 lawsuit challenged those and other regulations, saying the DMV was overstepping its authority by requiring legal immigration status. Last month, the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court sided with the DMV, saying the new rules served a vital purpose in deterring fraud and terrorism.

No one knows how many unlicensed drivers are undocumented immigrants. But a debate continues on whether to make them eligible for licenses.

Competing bills in Albany propose to loosen or strengthen the rules. Any loosening, though, might clash with the federal "Real ID" act taking effect in 2008. It requires states to deny driver's licenses to the undocumented; otherwise, the licenses won't be valid for identification purposes such as entering a federal building or boarding a plane.

Given the current political deadlock on what to do about an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, the problem of unlicensed drivers is unlikely to change soon.

Evidence of it is largely anecdotal, because police do not routinely ask drivers about their immigration status.

Rockland District Attorney Michael Bongiorno said he had more than 20 felony cases this year alone involving people accused of both unlicensed driving and drunken driving. He estimated that two-thirds of about 70 drivers charged in Spring Valley with misdemeanor counts of driving while intoxicated and unlicensed driving were illegal immigrants.

"Not only do they pose a danger to the public, there are costs to taxpayers and to consumers," Bongiorno said, pointing to insurance claims foiled when illegal immigrants give bogus addresses. "You are not going to be able to sue these guys, and in some cases, you can't find them. It's a broadening problem."

Federal immigration officials typically do not get involved when an undocumented person is charged with drunken driving or driving without a license, Bongiorno and police said.

"The only thing we on the local level can do is prosecute as best we can," Bongiorno said.

With the DMV crackdown, Milan Bhatt of the New Immigration Coalition estimated that 300,000 immigrants in New York are unable to legally obtain a license because of their status.

"The reality of the situation is people need cars to work and will drive, regardless," he said. "The other reality is people will submit false documents if they have to."

Mariana Boneo of the Hispanic Resource Center of Larchmont and Mamaroneck agreed, saying the job opportunities posted at the center seek workers who have cars.

"People are driving without their licenses," Boneo said. "And if there's an accident, it's going to be a hit-and-run."

The issue mirrors the wider debate over illegal immigration: advocates argue that it's better to bring the undocumented out of the shadows and put them on the books. The other side calls for stronger enforcement measures to remove or punish those living here without legal status.

Miguel Caceres, a 28-year-old Honduran immigrant who crossed the Mexican border illegally, said he's had to pay hundreds of dollars in vehicle- and traffic-related fines in Ramapo and Spring Valley. He was stopped late last month in Spring Valley after he allegedly failed to yield to a police car.

Caceres presented Officer Van Syckle with a driver's license from North Carolina and a vehicle registration from Connecticut. His driving privileges had been suspended in New York, Van Syckle said. Caceres was ticketed for aggravated unlicensed operation, a misdemeanor, and with unlicensed operation, operating an unregistered vehicle and failure to yield, all violations.

Even though Caceres' license and registration were obtained from state DMV offices, New York law requires that people who move here get state-issued documentation within 30 days of residence.

Caceres, who has lived in Spring Valley for two years, is aware of the regulation, but says he has to continue driving with the documentation he now has.

"One is forced to drive here," he said. "It's a necessity."

He has decided to move back to North Carolina with his wife and son.

"The police know my car, and they are always stopping me," he said. "Every three or four months they stop me."

He said many in Spring Valley's Hispanic community are feeling similar pressures.

Police increasingly encounter licenses issued by North Carolina and Michigan, and with registrations from Pennsylvania and Connecticut, Van Syckle said.

"People go out of state, and they get these licenses thinking now it's OK, but it's not," he said.

Some undocumented workers say they've given up driving, along with the related job opportunities.

Guillermo Ventura of Pomona said he stopped driving about three years ago. He crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally in 1986, and qualified for a California driver's license by presenting his birth certificate, proof of address and telephone number. But years later at the DMV in Haverstraw, he couldn't get a New York license.

"Now I don't have any options," he said.

Without a car, he relies on public transportation and finds work one or two days a week as a day laborer. He said it's been a challenge to take his son — an American citizen — to doctor appointments.

Gail Golden, co-chairwoman of the Rockland Immigration Coalition, said stories such as these demonstrate the "very unfortunate fallout issues" from denying people a means to legalize their immigration status.

"It's not good for any of us to have people who feel that their only choice is to live in the shadows, to have to drive illegally, to not feel that they can come forward and get some form of health care," she said.

However, allowing people living illegally in the United States to get licenses or other privileges of citizenship is not the answer, said Jack Martin, a coordinator for the Federation for American Immigration Reform in Washington. He said the answer is legislation and government action to decrease the number of illegal immigrants living in the United States.