Illegal-immigrant drivers license ban added to bill
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Illegal-immigrant drivers license ban added to bill
Rider aimed at keeping IDs out of the hands of undocumented workers
By Lisa Friedman
Staff Writer
WASHINGTON - An immigration provision attached to the $81.3 billion war-spending bill has generated controversy among advocates for undocumented immigrants and those who oppose extending them rights.
Advocates for barring undocumented immigrants from obtaining driver's licenses cheered Thursday what they called a major step in enacting the provision, but immigrants' rights groups and others insist the measure has a long way to go before it hits President Bush's desk, and they vowed to fight it every step of the way.
Republican leaders, including Rep. David Dreier, R-Glendora, attached the provision -- which also makes it easier to deport asylum-seekers and speeds completion of the barrier between the U.S. and Mexico near San Diego -- to the spending bill passed by the House on Wednesday.
"I'm confident that we're going to find a way to get this thing enacted," said Paul Egan, director of government relations for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates prohibiting states from issuing licenses to undocumented immigrants.
Now the bill heads to the Senate, where powerful lawmakers are more sympathetic to guest-worker programs and where the provision blocking states from issuing licenses faces stiff opposition.
Rep. Howard Berman, D-Van Nuys, said he is negotiating whether a separate proposal should be attached to the Senate version. The proposal would allow undocumented farmworkers to obtain temporary legal status if they could prove they worked at least 100 days in agriculture since July 2003, and apply for a green card after a year of farm work.
"I'm so much in the middle of it, and we're not ready to announce anything," Berman said.
Simply banning licenses and limiting judicial review for asylum seekers without also making needed changes in the immigration system is unbalanced, he said.
The only Southern California lawmaker to vote against the Iraq supplemental budget was Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles. Others, like Berman, blasted the immigration provisions but ultimately signed off on the bill.
Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Lakewood, said she was outraged by the license measure and "saddened that Republicans are using the pretext of national security to attack immigrants who pose no real threat to our safety."
And Rep. Hilda Solis, D-El Monte, said the measure "has no place on a bill to fund support for our military families and tsunami victims."
Advocates of the license ban, sponsored by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., maintain that keeping legal identification documents away from those in the United States illegally is a border-control measure that will thwart terrorists from entering the country.
"This legislation deals with our national security," Dreier said in a statement.
Egan acknowledged that the measure's fate in the Senate remains unclear.
"It's really so murky at this point," he said.
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