Thread: CA: Senate panel passes bill to extend licenses to invaders

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/stat ... ebill.html

By Jennifer Coleman
ASSOCIATED PRESS

3:54 p.m. May 19, 2005

SACRAMENTO – The latest attempt to grant driver's licenses to illegal immigrants {criminals} in California cleared a Senate committee on Thursday but with provisions that restrict how the licenses can be used and what they would look like.

The bill, by Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, would bring California into compliance with federal law. The REAL ID Act, signed by President Bush last week, requires states to verify that people who apply for a driver's license are in the country legally.

It also allows states to choose whether to issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants as long as they have different markings – such as color or design – than a regular license. They also must clearly state that the license cannot be used as an official identification card. {they need to be deported, not licensed}

Cedillo was the author of a bill signed by Gov. Gray Davis in 2003 to allow driver's licenses for nearly 2 million illegal immigrants. The law became a flash point in the campaign to recall Davis from office. Shortly after he was elected, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger persuaded the Legislature to repeal it.

Schwarzenegger said he would work with Cedillo to create a license that didn't compromise security and carried a distinctive mark. Last year, he vetoed Cedillo's attempt to create such a license, saying it didn't provide adequate security protections.

Cedillo said he expects the governor "to be a man of his word" and support his latest attempt.

He said he wasn't happy with the federal act because it offered a "two-tier" licensing structure that he has opposed in the past. But he urged his colleagues on the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee to pass the bill because California licenses will not be valid for identification at airports or federal buildings if the state doesn't conform its driver's licenses to the federal law.

"It will make our highways safer," said Sen. Nell Soto, D-Pomona. "Many illegal immigrants already drive. Everyone who buys car insurance pays the price for uninsured drivers." {what's going to make them buy insurance if they know they can just break the law and not buy insurance?}

Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Northridge, disagreed.

"It's not an insurance issue," he said. "It's an illegal immigration issue."

The federal act permits states to offer a "driving only" type license to illegal immigrants, he said, but California isn't required to do so.

He also questioned the need to pass legislation adopting the federal language that won't take effect until January 2009, the deadline for the federal regulations to be drafted and adopted.

Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Margita Thompson said it would be premature for the administration to take a position on Cedillo's bill because the federal government is still determining how the new law will be applied.

California, where immigrants make up a large part of the working class labor pool, has banned licensing illegal immigrant adult drivers for the past decade. A Field Poll released in March found that nearly two-thirds of California residents opposed the idea of extending driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.

Even some of the lawmakers who voted for the bill expressed doubts about the need to adopt the federal language so quickly. Sen. Mike Machado, D-Linden, said he was voting in favor of the bill but with "grave reservations" because officials with the California Highway Patrol and Department of Motor Vehicles hadn't weighed in on how the new licenses would be implemented. {another a--hat who's more concerned about the plight of criminals then he is his own constituents.}

The committee approved the bill 8-5, sending it to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

My tiny little mind has such difficulty with reading comprehension. I thought the word illegal was all over this article....I thought that 'illegal' meant against the law. ??? So, they have at least one million people who are breaking the law in that one state. And they worry about inconveniencing them, or insulting THEM?? Where does that leave US?? Do I need remedial reading??

RR

Originally Posted by RoadRunner

My tiny little mind has such difficulty with reading comprehension. I thought the word illegal was all over this article....I thought that 'illegal' meant against the law. ??? So, they have at least one million people who are breaking the law in that one state. And they worry about inconveniencing them, or insulting THEM?? Where does that leave US?? Do I need remedial reading??

RR

Sorry to say, but I like this. Give a card (visible they are illegal). That will help round them up, as a round up IS going to happen.

Operation Wetback II will take place, hopefully sooner than later. The op may have a different name (I would rally to use the same name, version 2), but it will happen, and happen soon after some "significant" event causes the already pissed-off populus to finally boil over.

H.

Originally Posted by Husker

Originally Posted by RoadRunner

My tiny little mind has such difficulty with reading comprehension. I thought the word illegal was all over this article....I thought that 'illegal' meant against the law. ??? So, they have at least one million people who are breaking the law in that one state. And they worry about inconveniencing them, or insulting THEM?? Where does that leave US?? Do I need remedial reading??

RR

Sorry to say, but I like this. Give a card (visible they are illegal). That will help round them up, as a round up IS going to happen.

Operation Wetback II will take place, hopefully sooner than later. The op may have a different name (I would rally to use the same name, version 2), but it will happen, and happen soon after some "significant" event causes the already pissed-off populus to finally boil over.

H.

I don't think they should get anything other than a deportation. Seriously, even if they have a card that states they are here illegally, so what? You think a cop is going to arrest them? Yeah the first time that happens the cop will lose his job over a racial profiling charge. I know how this crap works.

When the ticked-off populace boils over...they will declare martial law.

RR

In the article I read on this today, it was reported that not only do they get licenses, but they get them free!

The rest of us legal smucks pay $25.00 for a license but, like medical care, if you're illegal, it's "on the house".

How can Californians continue to allowed scum of the earth to get elected and reelected into office?