http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs. ... 1001/ENT04

Immigrants should have licenses, panel says
But plan has little chance of action at Statehouse

By JONATHAN ROOS
REGISTER STAFF WRITER


January 27, 2007
23 Comments



Iowa legislators are being asked to consider driver's licenses for immigrants who can't get licensed under current law because they entered the country illegally.

The request comes from a task force created last month by then-Gov. Tom Vilsack to study public safety issues concerning the lack of a "comprehensive identification system" for undocumented people living and working in the state.

Recommendations of the New Iowans Policy Task Force include examining the use of a passport or a "matricula consular card" as a valid form of identification and as a means of obtaining a driver's license. Consular identification cards are issued by Mexico to its citizens in the United States.

"People on the committee concluded that public safety issues do exist of sufficient concern as a result of undocumented Iowans driving without insurance, without knowledge of the rules of the road," said Sen. Joe Bolkcom, an Iowa City Democrat who served on the task force.

The driver's license recommendation faces an uphill battle in the Legislature, which has snubbed similar proposals before.

Sen. Jeff Danielson, vice chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, said the panel is unlikely to take up the proposal because it's one piece of larger immigration issues confronting the federal government.

"I don't think we're obligated at the state level to solve those issues with driver's licenses for illegal immigrants," said Danielson, D-Cedar Falls.

It will be costly for Iowa to comply with the federal Real ID Act, which sets standards for driver's licenses across the country, "and I don't want to complicate it any more," he added.

Bolkcom acknowledged that the Real ID Act could be a barrier to the licensing proposal. The task force calls for reconsideration of the new federal law.

Bolkcom and other supporters of licensing alternatives for undocumented immigrants say it is a matter of public safety to have people licensed to drive and in a position to get car insurance.

"We know they're going to drive. There isn't enough public transportation in this state to keep them from driving," said task force member Eddie Mauro of Des Moines, a leader of A Mid-Iowa Organizing Strategy, or AMOS. "This population is here. They're going to go to work. They're going to go to church. They're going to take their children to school."

Critics contend that granting driving privileges to undocumented people poses a security risk and rewards the illegal act of entering the United States without permission.

Members of the New Iowans Policy Task Force had previously called for more study of the issue before deciding during a final meeting conducted by conference call to offer a licensing recommendation.


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