Thread: Colorado Pulls U-Turn on Licenses for Illegal Immigrants

Colorado Pulls U-Turn on Licenses for Illegal Immigrants

By JACK HEALY and JULIE TURKEWITZ FEB. 11, 2015



Felipe Castro, who relies on his driver's license to travel 40 miles to work each day in northern Colorado, will be unable to renew it. CreditKevin Moloney for The New York Times

DENVER — His driver’s license is an economic lifeline, said Felipe Castro, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who commutes 40 miles each morning to his construction job in Northern Colorado. Or it was, until it expired last week.

He needed to renew it under a state program that was created almost two years ago — one of several across the country granting licenses to noncitizens. But with Republicans now in control of the Senate, the legislature’s joint budget committee has largely stripped the program of the money it needs to operate, angering many in Colorado’s fast-growing Latino community and upending life for thousands of undocumented immigrants like Mr. Castro, who has lived in the United States for more than a decade. The waiting period for licenses, never short, now sprawls until March 2016.

“I cannot renew it,” Mr. Castro, 51, said. “We suffer. When we have one crash, we are ready to lose everything. We go to jail, we suffer the deportation.”

RELATED COVERAGE

• U.S. Judge Says ‘Dreamers’ Can Keep Driver’s Licenses
  
  JAN. 22, 2015
  
  
• Justices Support Licenses for Immigrants in Arizona
  
  DEC. 17, 2014
  
  

Since the Colorado program began in August 2014, the state has issued 7,934 driver’s licenses and 1,655 state identification cards, according to the Division of Motor Vehicles. In states where licenses for immigrants who are in the country illegally have been approved — there are 10 in all, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico — demand has been high: California, which started its program at the beginning of 2015, said that more than 366,000 applicants had visited motor vehicles offices as of Feb. 3.

Photo

Jeanette Vizguerra, with her daughter Suri, 3. She has a learner's permit but said she needed a full driver's license to get to work and take her three young children, all American-born, to school.CreditKevin Moloney for The New York Times

Now there is pushback, and not only in Colorado. In New Mexico, one of the first states to issue licenses to illegal immigrants, conservative lawmakers — with the backing of Gov. Susana Martinez, a Republican and the first Latina to hold the post — have tried repeatedly to repeal the law enacted in 2003. The latest repeal attempt could go to a floor vote this week in the House of Representatives, which is Republican-controlled for the first time in 60 years; however, the bill will face a fight in the state’s Democrat-controlled Senate. And here in Colorado, Democrats plan to fight to restore the funding that the Republicans have erased.

The state-by-state battles over licenses have unfolded in the absence of broad federal legislation over how to handle the millions of people living in the country illegally. Supporters of noncitizen licenses — who include law enforcement officials — say that safety is the fundamental issue, since the licensing process makes drivers better educated about the rules of the road, more likely to have insurance, and less likely to flee an accident. Opponents, who include some Democrats, say the program amounts to amnesty.

In Arizona, after legislators attempted to deny licenses to certain immigrants, a federal judge ruled last month that the state must issue licenses to so-called Dreamers, people who were brought to the United States illegally as children, and were spared from deportation by President Obama in 2012.

“I don’t feel there should be any enabling for those people at all,” said Stan Weekes, a former director of the Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform. “There’s a way you go about immigrating, and then there’s the other way. I’m sorry, I just don’t have a lot of sympathy for people who are unwilling to go by the rules.”

While the Colorado Republicans do not have the votes to repeal the license program, they were able to gut its funding in a joint budget committee vote last month. They rejected a request from the D.M.V. to use about $166,000 in fees it collected from applicants to continue paying for the five offices and several staff members who run the program for thousands of immigrant applicants. The measure will stand, unless lawmakers amend the budget, which could happen: on Thursday, Jessie Ulibarri, a Democratic senator, plans to introduce a measure that would restore funding to the program.

State Senator Kevin Grantham, a Republican member of the budget committee who voted against releasing additional funds for the license program, said he worried about the message that the program sends. “We are endorsing them being here illegally by giving them a state-sanctioned license, which is a privilege,” he said. “That is not what our resources should be used for.”

Tanya Broder, a senior attorney for the National Immigration Law Center, which favors licenses for noncitizens, said it was not surprising to see resistance even in states where licenses have been issued. “There will be many steps forward, and a step or two back,” she said.

What is surprising is that it happened in Colorado, a swing state where Latinos make up about 14 percent of eligible voters and are starting to be elected in larger numbers to the State Legislature.

There are about 180,000 undocumented immigrants in Colorado, according to an estimate by the Pew Hispanic Center based on 2012 data. And immigrant rights advocates say they have been deluged with calls since the money for licenses was cut.

“Everyone has been asking, ‘What’s going to happen to us?’  ” said Estrella Ruiz, who has been helping many immigrants around Grand Junction, Colo., schedule their Division of Motor Vehicles appointments and get their documents in order. “The political game that they’re playing, it’s upsetting.

Why take away programs that are helping the community?”

Four of the five D.M.V. offices handling noncitizen appointments for identification cards and driver’s licenses were cut back, leaving one in Denver. It can handle about 30 people a day; immigrant rights groups say that thousands are waiting for licenses.

“There’s a huge backlog, and unless the funding is restored there’s no forward motion,” Mr. Ulibarri said.

In New Mexico, opponents of the driver’s license law have said that it has made the state a hub for criminals who help out-of-state immigrants obtain bogus licenses by providing them with false documents. The state hasrepeatedly convicted people in such schemes; in one case involving a former public notary, the scam brought in an estimated $30,000 a month.

“Providing driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants has turned New Mexico into a magnet for criminal activity, leading to elaborate fraud rings and human trafficking,” Representative Paul Pacheco, who introduced the current bill to repeal licenses, said in a statement. “It is a dangerous practice that needs to be repealed once and for all.”

Even before the funding cuts in Colorado, immigrant rights groups complained about disorganization and long waits for licenses, and said the five offices could not keep up with the demand.

Jeanette Vizguerra said her appointment had been pushed back to November from April. Ms. Vizguerra, who came illegally to Colorado from Mexico City in 1997 and has been fighting for years to avoid deportation, has a learner’s permit, but said she needed a license to get to work cleaning houses and bring her three American-born children to school.

“It’s ridiculous and unjustifiable,” she said of the licensing change in Colorado. “It’s a way to punish the community.

There’s no other way to say it.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/12/us...mmigrants.html

Why can't anyone write a news article without turning it into a sob story?

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Why can't anyone write a news article without turning it into a sob story?

It's a New York Times story, and while they did get the news out about Colorado, good for them, but with their ownership, sob story additives will always be included. But, I don't care. These "sob stories" have taken a new turn and show story by story the lives these illegal aliens have stolen from Americans, they have businesses and jobs while Americans don't. This is becoming crystal clear from all their "sob stories". So let them show their pictures in their nice apartments and vehicles, let Americans who have neither feel the rage and grow the resentment. Americans must see for themselves what they've been robbed of, and in the irony of our day, these sob stories are doing exactly that.

Jeanette Vizguerra said her appointment had been pushed back to November from April. Ms. Vizguerra, who came illegally to Colorado from Mexico City in 1997 and has been fighting for years to avoid deportation, has a learner’s permit, but said she needed a license to get to work cleaning houses and bring her three American-born children to school.

“It’s ridiculous and unjustifiable,” she said of the licensing change in Colorado. “It’s a way to punish the community.

There’s no other way to say it.”

That's right, we're punishing you under the law for your illegal acts. If you don't have a license, you can't drive to work, that means you get fired and an American can sign up for the job. You need to back your bags, round up your brood and haul ass back to where you came from.

Now "three American-born children". Steve King, you must push your bill to end automatic birthright citizenship for children of illegal aliens and push it hard. We need this bill immediately. Boehner and whatever committee it's in, get it out of committee and to the floor for an up or down vote, this is a no-brainer bill, so get it on the floor of the House, it will pass overwhelmingly, then walk it over to the Senate, and McConnell, you push it through the Senate. No, Obama won't sign it, but guess what? You may be surprised how many Democrats will vote with US on this once you do your job and pass the damn bills to reach a veto over-ride.

Now get 'em through. Bring national media attention to this issue of birthright citizenship for children of illegal aliens. Force the media to report and investigate on it. After all, the media can't report on what you don't do, they can't speak on what is not up for discussion yet, so get it out there. Now.

I just wanted to add a big thank you to the Republican Governor of Colorado and the Republican members and hopefully some additional Democratic members of the Colorado General Assembly for all they're doing to reverse this absurd and harmful policy of issuing drivers licenses to illegal aliens.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Now there is pushback, and not only in Colorado. In New Mexico, one of the first states to issue licenses to illegal immigrants, conservative lawmakers — with the backing of Gov. Susana Martinez, a Republican and the first Latina to hold the post — have tried repeatedly to repeal the law enacted in 2003.

Could it be that Hispanic Americans - underline "Americans" - are becoming concerned, because illegals threaten the jobs of their children and their grandchildren?
**************************************
Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

Originally Posted by vistalad

Could it be that Hispanic Americans - underline "Americans" - are becoming concerned, because illegals threaten the jobs of their children and their grandchildren?
**************************************
Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

I think they've been as concerned as we all are from the beginning of this disaster. They were perhaps less vocal in years past because of the "race card" the 501 C 3's used to try to silence Americans, so perhaps they didn't want to be part of the voice to stop it for fear others would attack them. But now that we proved years ago that "that dog won't hunt", everyone understands that the opposition to illegal immigration had nothing to do with their ethnic origin, it was always simply that they were in the country in violation of US immigration, US labor and US civil rights laws regardless of their race or ethnic origin, stealing everyone's job, signing up for welfare and tax credits, and burdening our institutions from public schools and hospitals to law enforcement.

Originally Posted by Judy

I just wanted to add a big thank you to the Republican Governor of Colorado and the Republicans members and hopefully some additional Democratic members of the Colorado General Assembly for all they're doing to reverse this absurd and harmful policy of issuing drivers licenses to illegal aliens.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

\ \\\
WE ALL THANK YOU COLORADO FOR WHAT YOU DID & EVERY STATE SHOULD DO THE SAME THING
THANK YOU AGAIN

Colorado: Senate

Rejects Funding Plan for Driver’s Licenses for Immigrants

By JULIE TURKEWITZ FEB. 12, 2015

An effort to fund the state program that provides driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants has failed, leaving the program with little ability to function.

On Thursday, State Senator Jessie Ulibarri, a Democrat, submitted an amendment that would have assigned funds collected from immigrant applicants to pay for the program.

The Republican-controlled Senate voted down the measure.

Unauthorized immigrants can receive driver’s licenses in 10 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

Colorado’s program began in 2014, and state motor vehicle offices issuing these license have been swamped with requests from immigrants.

But critics maintain that the program rewards people who have crossed into the country without authorization.

Last month, the state’s joint budget committee voted not to approve about $166,000 in new funds for the program, forcing officials to lay off workers and stop issuing the licenses at four of the five participating motor vehicle offices.

One office, in Denver, was left to process the licenses.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/13/us...mmigrants.html