Thread: Immigrant driver's bill advances to aid Colorado farm labor

Immigrant driver's bill advances to aid Colorado farm labor

Wednesday, April 18, 2018



DENVER (AP) — The Colorado House on Wednesday passed a bipartisan bill aimed at boosting the ranks of the state's agricultural workforce by letting immigrants who are in the country illegally renew their driver's licenses online or by mail.

The bill is supported by dairy, cattle and produce farmers and seen as an effort to overcome objections that granting the licenses validates efforts to enter the U.S. illegally.

The Senate will now consider minor amendments by the Democrat-led House. If approved, it will be sent to Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper.

Colorado has issued the driver's licenses since 2014. But they must be renewed in person every three years at one of three Department of Motor Vehicles offices devoted to that purpose.


The waiting list for renewals is months long, preventing many workers from driving to their jobs and operating farm or construction machinery once they arrive.
In addition, the state has seen illegal sales of appointments that have already been booked by immigrants.

A similar bill died in the Republican-led Senate last year. This year, GOP Sens. Don Coram and Larry Crowder introduced new legislation , arguing the economies of their rural western and southern Colorado districts are at stake and that workers need to drive safely and legally. The Senate passed the bill.

Immigrants who can prove they live in Colorado are eligible for the licenses.

The bill also would allow people to use Social Security numbers — obtained through work or student visas and by those protected from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program — to obtain Colorado licenses.

Currently, Colorado issues licenses to those who can provide individual taxpayer identification numbers, which are granted to immigrants by the IRS to pay taxes.

"I understand the problems with national immigration but this isn't related to that," Crowder said when he introduced the bill, steering the debate away from the Donald Trump administration's crackdown on immigrants living in the country illegally, an effort supported by many Colorado Republican lawmakers.

"We're having trouble filling agriculture positions," Crowder said.

Democratic Rep. Jeni Arndt, who represents rural Larimer County, said Wednesday Colorado dairy farmers and other farm groups lobbied for the bill.

Twelve states and the District of Columbia offer special licenses to immigrants in the country illegally. Supporters say the licenses ensure immigrants know driving laws and help keep them insured. Colorado's program is self-funded by fees.

More than 30,000 Colorado driver licenses have been issued to people unable to demonstrate they're in the U.S. legally. Colorado had an estimated 200,000 such residents in 2014.

Advocates, including the Denver Health Medical Center, also insist it's a public safety issue.

"Having people with driver's licenses makes our roads safer. People behind the wheel know the rules of road and a license makes it easier to get auto insurance," said Joe Sammen, executive director of Center for Health Progress, a Denver-based advocacy group.

Colorado's bill doesn't address other questions about its program. Immigrant services at DMV offices in Colorado Springs and Grand Junction are set to close once a 66,000-appointment cap is reached sometime this fall.

That would leave just one office in Denver that offers 93 appointments each day.

"We are going to have to revisit that issue next year," said Democratic Rep. Jonathan Singer, a bill co-sponsor.

https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/us...s-12844995.php

The bill is supported by dairy, cattle and produce farmers and seen as an effort to overcome objections that granting the licenses validates efforts to enter the U.S. illegally.

So these lawmakers in Colorado have forgotten or are blind to the fact a year ago deep Democrat blue Oregon defeated licenses for illegals by a landslide in a public referendum???

How can these government offices get away with harboring, aiding and abetting illegal aliens?

Shut this down!

NO GOVERNMENT ISSUED DRIVER'S LICENSES OR ID'S FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS!

Illegal aliens can get driver's licenses in all 50 states,if they are in DACA.

5/29/15
"The law is effective immediately, meaning that Dreamers granted DACA finally have the right to apply for driver's licenses in all 50 states."

https://www.aclu.org/blog/speak-free...-their-license

Nebraska Legislature Overrides Governor's Veto and Gives Dreamers Their License to Drive

By Jonathan Blazer, ACLU
MAY 29, 2015 | 12:30 PM



Maria Marquez Hernandez at her graduation


Maria Marquez Hernandez just graduated from the University of Nebraska at Omaha with a degree in psychology, but she still can't give her younger sister a ride. That's because she's a Dreamer — brought to the U.S. by her parents and raised undocumented as a child.

Shortly after the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was announced in 2012, Maria applied for DACA and received a Social Security number and work authorization card, which ordinarily would have allowed her to apply for a Nebraska driver's license. But the former and current governor decreed that Dreamers could not qualify for driver's licenses, even if they presented that documentation. This has made daily life difficult for Maria, but not being able to do what other big sisters do bothered her most.

Buckle up. This week that changed when the Nebraska Senate voted in dramatic fashion to let Dreamers drive.

Maria loves Nebraska, which she has called home since the age of five. But as she has noted, standing up for herself and others in the face of injustice is part of being an American. So when Maria was denied a license because of Gov. Pete Ricketts' adherence to an unfair and unlawful edict, she joined with several of her fellow Dreamers to challenge it in court. But rather than simply waiting on a court to decide, Dreamers and their allies, including the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce, convinced the legislature to consider a bill to reverse the discriminatory policy.

At first, it seemed like a long shot. Republican members of Congress are trying to scrap DACA altogether. Republican governors and attorneys general in 26 states — including Nebraska — are suing to stop the DACA program from expanding. How were Dreamers going to convince a majority of Republicans to override their Republican governor?

Ask them. Last week, the legislature passed a bill ensuring that Dreamers with DACA — and anyone else with deferred action — are eligible for driver's licenses. When the governor vetoed the bill, the senators stood strong, and voted 34-10 to override the veto. This vote is a victory for Dreamers, and for all Nebraskans.

But it is also of national significance for two other reasons.
First, it successfully concludes nearly three years of a nationwide, state-by-state legal and political struggle by ACLU and partner organizations to support Dreamers' fight to win recognition of their right to driver's licenses. As soon as President Obama announced his DACA initiative in August 2012, most states embraced the opportunity to integrate young immigrants and to ensure that they are trained, tested, licensed, and insured as drivers. Some states, however, vowed to deny driver's licenses to them. Others stonewalled.

There was more than driving at stake. For states and Dreamers alike, a driver's license symbolizes belonging, membership, and acceptance. In most cases, recalcitrant state officials relented in the face of strong legal advocacy, organizing, and the broad public consensus favoring fair treatment of Dreamers.

Three states held out: Michigan, Arizona, and Nebraska.

Dreamers had little choice but to sue, with the support of ACLU and other partners. Michigan began issuing licenses soon after being sued. Arizona began issuing licenses earlier this year, after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit found that the state's policy violated the U.S. Constitution. This left Nebraska standing alone, the last state clinging to discrimination.

Wisely, rather than await yet another unfavorable court ruling, the legislature took the affirmative step of passing a law to end two governors' losing battle. The law is effective immediately, meaning that Dreamers granted DACA finally have the right to apply for driver's licenses in all 50 states.

Second, the Nebraska vote brings an underreported trend to the surface: the unwillingness of state legislatures in both red and blue states to penalize Dreamers and others granted deferred action.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the architect of numerous failed anti-immigrant state laws,boasted earlier this year that he was in consultation with lawmakers from a dozen other states about state legislation to target Dreamers and others who benefit from federal executive actions on immigration.

Yet from Kansas to Georgia to Texas, Republicans state legislators are refusing as a matter of state policy to penalize Dreamers. Why? It's one thing to file a bill attacking Dreamers, and it's quite another to have to face them, hearing after hearing, and to listen to their stories, which always disrupt simplistic stereotypes regarding "illegal immigration."

The media rebroadcasts those stories of young people overcoming extraordinary obstacles to contribute actively to their communities, and public opinion turns even further against legislators seeking to punish Dreamers. The Nebraska vote is another strong indication of support, on the ground, for Dreamers and the presidents' deferred action initiatives.

Republicans may disagree with the way in which the president has gone about his reforms, but they appear to agree with the policies themselves.

Either way, Maria Marquez Hernandez, other Dreamers, and their allies will keep fighting — and winning.

https://www.aclu.org/blog/speak-free...-their-license

5/11/2013

Other states join New Mexico in granting driver's licenses to illegal aliens,since 2003

"Immigrant driver's bill advances to aid Colorado farm labor"

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So DACA are here picking lettuce???

"I understand the problems with national immigration but this isn't related to that," Crowder said when he introduced the bill,

IT IS RELATED! It is one of the many lures that attracts illegal aliens to come and stay.

"We're having trouble filling agriculture positions," Crowder said.

If they hire only legal works and paid all the legally required taxes, insurances and such, that they are legally required for any worker, they could have all the help they need through legal work visa programs. That would benefit the workers as well. The only downside is it would cost more for farming. But that is bringing the price to where it should be.

We already pay the HIGH COST of agriculture...just not at the check out stand.

WE pay $113 BILLION a year on illegal aliens and their offspring!

I would rather pay directly at the checkout stand and deport them ALL.

Put American's to work...pay a living wage. They pay back into our taxes and keep their money on our soil.

SHUT THIS DOWN!

GET A LEGAL WORK PERMIT OR GET OUT!

DAPA, DACA, Farm Workers - Rural Migration News | Migration ...

https://migration.ucdavis.edu/rmn/more.php?id=1891
About 70 percent of US farm workers were born in Mexico. ... Farm work is a job rather than a career for most farm workers; many farm workers move on to nonfarm jobs after a decade in the fields. DAPA and DACA may speed exits from agriculture, since legal status increases mobility in the US labor market.

70% of farm workers are from mexico - 70% of IT workers are from India = a lot of jobs Americans don't have. What % construction workers? Plus remittances sent home instead of spent in our economy - a lose, lose situation being allowed.

It shouldn't be shocking these states granting DL to illegals, most states HAVE BEEN DOING THAT IN A ROUND ABOUT WAY FOR 10YEARS NOW. Pennsylvania has been giving DL by allowing easy fraud with online DL & loose ID qualifications at the dl center for picture/license issued. To see the state listed as not giving DL to illegals is a lie. All of them drive, then you have Maryland, Virginia plates - all illegals behind the wheel. NY is the same.