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Dec 1, 2005 6:57 pm US/Central

Gov. Pushes For Undocumented Immigrants Licenses

Rafael Romo
Reporting


CBS) CHICAGO A major hurdle for undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. is a driver’s license. Now the push is on to change that.

As CBS 2's Rafael Romo explains, it's a hot button issue among Latino voters.

Like thousand of undocumented immigrants who live in Illinois, this man drives without a driver's license. He says he needs it because he has to drive to work every day to support his family; he would also like to get insurance.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich not only spoke Spanish Thursday, he also promised the Latino Legislative Caucus he would support giving licenses to undocumented immigrants.

“It's a very easy thing to support the initiatives that this caucus here put forth,� Blagojevich said.

“I challenge any other candidate to come and do the same thing and support us as well,� said State Rep. Eddie Acevedo.

The challenge was clearly directed at Republican gubernatorial candidate Judy Baar Topinka, who also greeted Latino leaders in Spanish. But said she needs more time to make a final determination.

“I don't have that done yet, but we will be coming up with the whole package because it's going to involve that, it's going to involve education. It's going to involve all the things that I think are important to the Latino community,� Topinka said.

Secretary of State Jesse White, who also attended the Latino caucus conference, said it will be extremely difficult to give licenses to undocumented immigrants right now due to federal regulations.

There's also fierce opposition at the state legislature from conservative Republicans and statistics have shown Illinoisans are deeply divided about this hot issue.