Thread: CA: Proposed state law would allow illegal immigrants to ..

Gil Cedillo does this every year. He's known as 'one bill Gil.'
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http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archiv ... 3local.htm

February 6, 2007


watsonville
Proposed state law would allow illegal immigrants to drive
By TOM RAGAN
SENTINEL STAFF WRITER
WATSONVILLE — They work in the fields, they make up the rooms in many of the hotels in Santa Cruz County, and in the restaurants they often cook the food and bus the tables.

They are the estimated 20,000 undocumented workers who populate the Pajaro Valley, but the hard part isn't necessarily finding work — it's getting to work.

Every day hundreds of illegal immigrants get behind the wheel and drive without a California driver's license, an illegal maneuver they're well aware of but continue to do.

"We've got to get to work. There's no way around it," said Adrian Saldivar, a field foreman in Watsonville whose strawberry workers often break the law to feed their families. "And so that's what they do. They drive, even when they shouldn't be"

But state Sen. Gilbert Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, for the third straight year, hopes to rectify what he sees as an unjust scenario with the introduction of Senate Bill 60.

Not only would the proposed law allow undocumented workers to drive legally, it would require criminal background checks, fingerprints and other security measures that would meet the Real ID Act of 2005, which strives to set national standards for driver's licenses. Cedillo's bill would link state records to national databases.

"For 65 years immigrants were legally driving in California," Cedillo said in a telephone interview from Sacramento on Monday. "But in 1993 such a right was stripped from them. And I know there are a lot of people out there who are going to say, 'Well, but they're illegal, they shouldn't have the right to drive,' and my response to that is, 'So are the child molesters; they've done something illegal, and we don't take their licenses away.'"

Opposition to Cedillo's bill, scheduled to go before the Senate Transportation Committee in late March, already has mounted. Cedillo believes the law, if passed, would make state highways safer. Others disagree, saying the law would merely reward undocumented workers for crossing into the country illegally.

"While I feel sorry for these illegals, it is not the USA's obligation to give away rights that we have fought and died for to someone who has snuck over here," writes Stockton resident Aaron Limon Estrada, who signed a petition opposing the legislation a few weeks ago. "What part of illegal does this government not understand? Our educational, medical and housing has gone sky high due to overpopulation in California. It will not be long before we become the world's first Third World welfare state in truth"

For Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger the issue has always been about tighter security post-911, said Sabrina Lockhart, a spokesman for the governor. Last year, he vetoed a similar bill, saying he would rather wait for the federal regulations to be passed on the Real ID Act.

"Given the potential impact of the Real ID Act on the public safety and homeland security of Californians, members of my administration are working with the federal government to develop those regulations and secure funds necessary to implement the Act," Schwarzenegger wrote last year in a statement accompanying his veto. "Until the Real ID Act is implemented and the federal government adopts comprehensive immigration reform, it is inappropriate to move forward with state law in this area"

Meanwhile, thousands of undocumented workers, are illegally driving to work or using their licenses from Mexico, like Nicolas Saldivar Vargas, 52, a Tecate resident who said he migrates to the Pajaro Valley every year for work.

"The police usually accept my license from Mexico," he said. "But it's always nerve-wracking driving through the streets of Watsonville, knowing that you could be pulled over at any moment and you don't have a driver's license from California. "But we need to get to work"

Contact Tom Ragan at tragan@santacruzsentinel.com.

Since they broke the law once already, they are not going to follow it now.

Why not have ICE waiting for them at the DMV with buses. That would also solve the problem! The fact is even if they could apply half of them wouldn't bother! And the other half would drive without insurance so whats the point?

If we allow Illegal aliens to have a driver's license, we must increase the penalty for driving without insurance.
My family has been involved in 2 accidents which were the fault of Hispanic drivers with No license and No insurance.
Texas law requires Auto Liability Insurance on all vehicles. I would like to see "Driving without Ins., a deportable offense.