Thread: Licenses for illegal immigrants: Big business

Licenses for illegal immigrants: Big business for driving schools
By COLLEEN LONG | Associated Press Writer
11:44 AM EDT, October 8, 2007

http://www.newsday.com
NEW YORK - Domenico Pinto's driving school has always banked on immigrants.

When he opened his business in Queens nearly 40 years ago, it was to help Italians learn enough English to take the written exam for a driver's license. Soon, waves of immigrants from other countries began arriving at his school in hopes of learning the rules of the road in their new home.

Then Sept. 11 came, and customers dropped off as the government began requiring drivers to provide federal immigration documents to prove they were in the country legally.



"I don't even know if they were supposed to be here, but that's not for me to say," he said. "When the rules changed, we lost at least 30 percent of our clients."

But business may be booming again now that illegal immigrants will soon be able to get driver's licenses in New York under a plan by Gov. Eliot Spitzer. New York City alone is home to an estimated 500,000 to 1 million illegal immigrants, and many will likely turn to the city's dozens of driving schools for help with their newfound driving privileges.

The new business will be welcome, but owners aren't quite sure what to think about the political policy attached.

"It's a mixed bag," Pinto's son and partner Michelangelo Pinto said of Spitzer's plan. "On one hand it will boost our business, but on the other we hope that all the necessary steps are being taken to secure everyone's identity."

Spitzer's plan has drawn considerable opposition since it was announced last month, with conservatives saying it invites terrorism. Spitzer argues the plan _ requiring a valid passport to get a license, with additional anti-fraud measures _ will bring "people out of the shadows" when it goes into effect in December.

He says it will make the roads safer, because many of the undocumented immigrants are driving without a license and car insurance or with fake licenses. Similar policies have been adopted in Utah, New Mexico and other states, but the Department of Homeland Security is pushing all 50 states to tighten their identification standards.

In New York, where 7 million rely on public transportation every day, getting behind the wheel isn't a rite of passage, and driver's ed is not a high school staple like it is in many places around the country. Plus, the chances of someone owning a car to borrow for practice is slim.

So eager drivers must seek out professional help at a driving school in one of the city's five boroughs. The businesses usually offer help with a written test required for a learner's permit, and they provide hands-on driving instruction to help with the road test. The state Department of Motor Vehicles recommends at least 30 hours of practice before the road test.

The schools are usually set up in storefronts along busy intersections crammed with traffic. Parking is scarce, so school vehicles are stowed on the street, double parked, of course, and driving instructors pick up and drop off students.

Students are often immigrants learning to drive, but their native language depends on the neighborhood, Domenico Pinto said. In his part of Queens, he gets mostly Spanish speakers, but he says instructors and students in other neighborhoods speak Korean, Russian and Chinese.

Kids going away to college, people moving away from the city and in need of a car, or residents who have no patient family members generally make up the rest of the students. Some, like The Professional Driving School in midtown Manhattan, teach diplomats who don't need a license, but need to learn the rules of the U.S. roads.

"Cultural barriers exist no matter what your legal status is," said Jaye Joubert, a driving instructor there for nearly a decade. "It's important to learn the customs and rules of proper driving here."

To ease the language barrier at the Pintos' Ferrari Driving School, most of the school's employees are bilingual, and Michelangelo Pinto is working to create a CD that has training and testing commands that customers need to know in English first explained in their native language. He is also working to develop an in-car video which demonstrates training techniques in any language.

Victor Castro, 33, just got his Commercial Driver's License from Ferrari _ something he needs to drive a tractor-trailer for work.

To learn, he wound the massive rig up and down busy New York streets, making hairpin turns and avoiding parked cars. Not exactly like driving on the quiet, open freeway or back home in the Dominican Republic.

"I felt like there were enough people who spoke Spanish that between the two languages I learned a great deal," he said. "I feel comfortable driving a big truck and I didn't really before. And now I can get more work."

Amid the uproar over the Spitzer plan, driving instructors say classes for newcomers are necessary and whether that person is legally or illegally in the U.S. really isn't the issue. That is because schools can't teach people without proper documents. For example, to take a road test, the student has to have valid permit, meaning they would have to have presented valid documents to get the permit in the first place.

"It's not something anyone can fake," said Pinto. "Either you have the right papers for the government or you don't."

In Utah if you see an illegal driver you try and stay away from them. If you don't you will get creamed and you will pay for all the costs. The illegal gets away scott free just like they do with everything else. I say keep them off the road.