Thread: No more car impounds due to lack of driver's license

No more car impounds due to lack of driver's license

LA Border and Immigration Examiner
Aurelia Fierros
October 11, 2011

Unlicensed drivers caught at sobriety checkpoints in the state of California will no longer have their cars impounded, under Assembly Bill 353.

The new legislation signed Sunday by Gov. Jerry Brown will take effect Jan. 1st, preventing statewide police agencies to confiscate vehicles due to a lack of a driving license; strategy civil rights activists have frequently singled out as a policing tool to detect, submit to ICE, and deport illegal immigrants, and -in the best case they argue- to scare and oust the undocumented from the area.

The new law, sponsored by Assembly member Gil Cedillo, a Democrat from Los Angeles, stipulates that if a sober person is found not to have a valid driver’s license while inspected at a DUI checkpoint, police officers must release the vehicle to a qualified driver representing the car’s registered owner. If a licensed driver cannot be located immediately or is unavailable, the car will be impounded but should be released later to the registered owner or a qualified driver representing the owner, at the impound yard.

The motivation for the bill is based in the belief that law enforcement frequently uses checkpoints to target illegal immigrants rather than drunken drivers.

Under current legislation, when an individual is found to be driving without a license, the car is impounded for up to 30 days. Within the Hispanic community, the frequent complaint is the impound fees to recover their vehicle are so high that they end up never getting it back.

AB 353 states police officers must make a “reasonableâ€

More pandering to the illegals. Why not just roll out the red carpet Moonbeam,