CO - State to slash driver’s license program for undocumented immigrants
Posted 6:07 am, January 28, 2015, by Chris Jose, Updated at 06:50pm, January 28, 2015
DENVER — The Colorado Division of Motor Vehicles is making cuts that will affect undocumented immigrants who are seeking a driver’s license.
Four DMV offices will no longer accommodate undocumented immigrants starting Monday.
The only DMV branch that will offer the service will be Denver’s central office located at 1865 W. Mississippi Ave.
The reductions will affect scheduling because new appointments will not be available until March 2016. The DMV can only accommodate 31 appointments a day, down from the 155 it was offering.
Last week, the three Republican lawmakers on the Joint Budget Committee voted not to approve $166,000 in additional funding for offices that provide driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants and have been overwhelmed by demand since the program took effect.
“It’s really unprecedented to see Republicans play partisan politics with already established law,” said Julie Gonzales with the Colorado Latino Forum.
Under legislation, the program must be funded with fees paid by immigrants paying for licenses.
Colorado began issuing driver’s licenses and identification cards to undocumented immigrants in July.
An estimated 150,000 people are seeking driver’s licenses.
The change could add years to the waiting list.
http://kdvr.com/2015/01/28/state-to-...ed-immigrants/
Undocumented immigrant driver's license vote delayed
Jonathan Gonzalez, 7:03 p.m. MST January 22, 2015
DENVER - The six members of the state legislature's bipartisan joint budget committee have postponed a vote one day after the board's Republicans voted to reject a proposal to help the state's struggling driver's license program for undocumented immigrants.
The program began in August 2014 but has since been found to be underfunded after the state received more requests for driver's licenses than it initially accounted for.
On Wednesday, representatives from the Colorado Department of Revenue, on behalf of the Department of Motor Vehicles, requested extra funds already raised by the program be allocated back to it through the budget.
The board needed a majority vote to approve the allocation of those funds, but members voted along party lines, essentially killing the request.
Sen. Jessie Ulibarri, an Adams County Democrat who sponsored the bill in 2013, accused Republicans of using the budget as a political weapon.
"It needs to be paid for by the fees on the licenses themselves," Ulibarri said. "What the Republicans on the joint committee did was say, 'No. We won't give you the money you already collected for this specific public safety purpose. We will make a political stand instead.'"
In response, Republicans say the Department of Revenue asked for $166,000 "extra dollars" for the program, claiming the DMV still has the same money initially allocated to the program when it was created.
However, Ulibarri claims that without the extra revenue, the program will shut down almost entirely.
Only five DMV offices currently offer the special driver's licenses, but the senator said that number will drop to just one if the committee's Democrats cannot sway at least one of the republicans to change their mind on the issue.
"One of the republicans will have to change their vote, or they'll use the budget as a political weapon as they have in Washington D.C.," Ulibarri said. "A big departure from how things generally operate in Colorado. If we have disagreements on policy, we do it on the senate floor or the house floor, we don't do it in our budget."
http://www.9news.com/story/news/loca...nses/22176003/
