Thread: NC: Legislation could offer driving permits to undocumented immigrants

Coping with reality: Legislation could offer driving permits to undocumented immigrants

Fernando Carrera, left, has his photo made for a FaithAction International House ID card Friday at the Mullin Life Center of First Presbyterian Church in Greensboro.
Sam Roberts / Times-News

By Natalie Allison Janicello / Times-News

Published: Saturday, April 25, 2015 at 05:59 PM.


The Highway Safety/Citizens Protection Act, a bill introduced this spring in the General Assembly, could grant state-issued ID cards and driving permits to undocumented immigrants living in North Carolina, as well as increase penalties for offenses such as driving without a license and possessing a fake ID. As it stands, though, the bill would dampen the efforts of local nonprofits and law enforcement agencies working to issue ID cards to immigrants.

With his wife, Rene Martinez owns a home in Burlington and has three children, including a 20-year-old son who now attends Elon University on a full scholarship through Elon Academy, a program for local first-generation college students.

Martinez has lived in the United States for 26 years, the last nine in North Carolina, where he moved to settle down and because, at the time, he could obtain a driver’s license. He is undocumented, despite failed efforts to become a citizen, he said.

Soon after obtaining his license, a state law passed that made it impossible for undocumented immigrants to receive or renew their licenses. Today, Martinez and others in his position either don’t drive, or drive and risk getting a ticket — and possibly taken to jail — for no operator’s license.

But legislation that has passed a House judiciary committee in Raleigh could change all of that, allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain a driving permit that must be renewed every year, so long as they pass a background check, provide fingerprints and have proof of car insurance.

“Probably a large percent of the people think driving is nothing, but for us, it would be a lot,” Martinez said. “Believe me, it would be a lot.”

Martinez said he mostly depends on his 25-year-old son, with whom he works a remodeling job, as well as his other son in college to give him rides. But sometimes, “when it’s really necessary,” he takes the risk and drives.

“It’s not like in big cities, (where) if your license expires, you can take city transportation, which we don’t have here,” Martinez said. “Of course, if they let us drive again, that would be a help to many, many of my fellows who are in the same situation as me.”

If House Bill 328, introduced by Rep. Harry Warren, a Republican from Rowan County, becomes law, undocumented immigrants could begin receiving the one-year driving permits later this year.

As it’s written, the legislation also would increase the penalty for manufacturing fraudulent IDs, taking the offense from a misdemeanor to a felony; allow vehicles driven by someone without a valid license or restricted driver’s permit — undocumented or not — to be seized and impounded; increase bond requirements for immigrants unlawfully in the United States who have committed certain violent crimes; and invalidate ID cards issued by nonprofits, municipalities and the Mexican Consulate as a form of identification in interactions with law enforcement and other government officials.

Addressing concerns from those opposed to the bill, Warren said the legislation would not create “an influx of illegal immigration into North Carolina” since the requirement for the driving permit would be stricter than those in place in the 13 other states that issue licenses to undocumented immigrants.

“Nobody that’s offering driver’s licenses or some form of driving privilege is asking people to do or demanding people to do what we are here in North Carolina with the fingerprinting and criminal background checks,” Warren said April 15 during the Judiciary I committee.

“Driver’s licenses don’t motivate immigration,” Warren added. “Economics do. People don’t sneak into the United States to get a driver’s license, and they don’t go to Arizona or to Florida to get driver’s licenses. They go there to work. There’s nothing wrong with issuing a permit. It’s acknowledging the fact that we have people driving without insurance, without being vetted, without being tested, and to recognize that and for us as a legislative body to do nothing about it is, in my opinion, a dereliction of duty.”

SO FAR, THE BILL is proving to be a mixed bag for those on both sides of the immigration issue. To both pro- and anti-immigration activists, there are parts of House Bill 328 that appear positive and parts that are concerning.

The Rev. David Fraccaro, executive director of FaithAction International House in Greensboro, believes the bill’s language may change before going to a vote. FaithAction has issued close to 2,000 photo ID cards over the past two years and has a partnership with the Greensboro Police Department and some other City of Greensboro departments that recognize the ID cards.

He said that while driving permits for undocumented immigrants would be a positive step, other measures in the bill, such as impounding cars driven by unlicensed drivers or a limitation on the types of IDs police officers can accept, could be detrimental for immigrants.

“I think it would be unfortunate to potentially invalidate a program that has been so successful and impactful at the local level,” Fraccaro said of directives outlined to law enforcement in the bill’s current draft. “And it’s important for them to understand that not everybody is going to go through with the driver’s permit process.”

Next month, FaithAction is set to begin issuing ID cards in Alamance County through a partnership with Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church and other local groups, with Burlington and several other local police departments having agreed to recognize the cards as valid forms of identification.

Burlington Police Chief Jeffrey Smythe has spoken in favor of issuing ID cards such as FaithAction’s as a way for law enforcement to identify those whom they encounter, and as a way for undocumented immigrants to feel a part of the community and comfortable reporting crime to police.

The N.C. Association of Chiefs of Police has spoken in favor of the bill since it would provide a reliable form of identification for law enforcement to use. Smythe said he does have concerns, though, about the legislation limiting the forms of ID police could accept under the totality of circumstances and whether the bill would be “setting a more punitive level of enforcement” for undocumented immigrants with the driving permits versus other citizens driving without a license.

“We’ve got 325,000 people — undocumented immigrants — living here in North Carolina,” Smythe said, referring to a number Warren has cited when discussing the bill. “They have jobs, they have kids to take to school, they have to get to church, to the grocery store — how do you think they get there? They drive. If we can make a path to get there lawfully, that’s better for everyone.”

According to the Burlington Police Department, in 2014, officers issued 445 citations for no operator’s license in the city limits to drivers identified by the officer as Hispanic.

James Johnson, president of North Carolinians for Immigration Reform and Enforcement, said his organization could back the bill if the driving permit portion were removed.

“We just feel that rewarding illegal aliens with a driver’s license sends the wrong message,” Johnson said. “Even with all of Representative Warren’s fluff and lipstick to make it seem as though it’s going be very difficult to jump through all the hoops. I guess you could say that it’s a great enforcement bill with a poison pill stuck right in the middle of it — the offering of a driver’s license.”

REP. STEVE ROSS, a Republican from Alamance County, said the legislation may be heading this week to the House Finance Committee, of which he is vice-chair, though there is a lengthy list of other bills that likely will have to be heard first. As of late last week, Ross said he still had not had an opportunity to read the bill and form his opinion, but had heard some of the arguments on both sides.

“There are a good, good number of undocumented immigrants that are here, and they’re not going anywhere,” Ross said. “That’s just the reality. I think there are those like Harry Warren trying to figure out a way — how do you cope with the reality? It’s a frustrating topic because the emotions run so high on this thing. I just look at this in practical numbers. If you’ve got so many — and nobody really knows how many — it just seems to me there should be some way of, if you can do it, making sure they have some form of documentation to drive and have insurance.”

Martinez said he believes the FaithAction ID program coming to Alamance County “is going to be a big help” for the Latino community, but that as someone who wants to be law-abiding, he hopes to have a means to drive again.

“We are here, and we have to find a way to survive,” he said.


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http://www.thetimesnews.com/news/top...rants-1.469912

So now we have with the hack politicians, hack "religious" organizations pushing to demean American citizenship. Our entire culture is run by Marxists, including most major "religious" organizations through the universities. Carl Marx was a militant atheist but that does not mean that religious organizations can not adopt his ideas about society. Too many into the Jesus thing think he was preaching Marxism because they are so ignorant they do not know the difference between voluntary charity and government guns enforced looting-- "for the poor" of course.

Originally Posted by csarbww

So now we have with the hack politicians, hack "religious" organizations pushing to demean American citizenship. Our entire culture is run by Marxists, including most major "religious" organizations through the universities. Carl Marx was a militant atheist but that does not mean that religious organizations can not adopt his ideas about society. Too many into the Jesus thing think he was preaching Marxism because they are so ignorant they do not know the difference between voluntary charity and government guns enforced looting-- "for the poor" of course.

I so agree with you on this. Religious organizations are using their tax exempt status to destroy our country. It really is unbelievable to see this.

Originally Posted by Judy

I so agree with you on this. Religious organizations are using their tax exempt status to destroy our country.

Follow the money. Illegals represent new money in the collections plates - and they earn more here, so they can contribute more than they could in their own countries.
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Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

Originally Posted by vistalad

Follow the money. Illegals represent new money in the collections plates - and they earn more here, so they can contribute more than they could in their own countries.
************************************
Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

Exactly, but it's not their earnings from work at low-wage jobs they're putting in the plates, it's drug money. Anyone who believes that illegal aliens of whom at least 71% are on at least one form of welfare are using their own wages to dump in the plate on Sunday needs to meet up with that guy selling beachfront property in Arizona. That money dropped into the plate is drug money which makes these churches recipients of illegal money funded by the cartels most of these illegal aliens actually work for, who sent them here, who financed their trip and stay here, who leads and guides them and orders and instructs them, every step of the way during their stays here.

If DHS was doing it's job, it would be sending teams in to these churches and drug testing the cash in the plate, because I'll bet most of it will come up positive for drugs. And while I totally support the separation of church and state, when the churches want to control our government, then I say, it's open season and right back at you, now show us your money, because we want to test it for drugs.