Thread: Republican Stothert supports bill to allow 'Dreamers' to get driver's licenses

CONTACT Republican Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert to tell her you do not appreciate or support her efforts to aid illegal aliens with driver licenses which 77% of Americans oppose! Call her at 402.444.5000!

Tell her you speak for the 77% of Americans who oppose driver licenses for illegal aliens...
(77% of American adults are opposed to making drivers licenses available to people who are in the country illegally, [November 2007, Rasmussen Reports])
http://www.alipac.us/illegal_immigra...ts_statistics/

Tell her you speak for the 67% of Oregon voters who rejected the same idea by defeating Measure 88 in 2014!
Out of the Blue: Oregon Voters Send the New GOP Majority a Message on Immigration

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KENT SIEVERS/THE WORLD-HERALD
Mayor Jean Stothert

Related Stories

• Driver’s licenses for ‘Dreamers’ gain support in Legislature
• Bill on immigrant driver’s licenses remains stalled but gets lawmaker's priority tag
• At packed legislative hearing, immigrants urge state to allow them to get driver's licenses
• Bill would grant driver's licenses to many young immigrants

Related Documents
Read Mayor Jean Stothert's letter to the Legislature on LB 623

POSTED: WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2015 6:30 PM
By Paul Hammel / World-Herald Bureau

LINCOLN — The political tide has turned even further in favor of issuing state driver’s licenses to young immigrants permitted to remain in the United States under a directive from President Obama.

On Wednesday, Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert issued a letter to state lawmakers stating her support for a bill that would allow licenses for those allowed to remain in the country under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program.

In addition, a key state senator, Jim Smith of Papillion, said the chances are “very good” that the full Legislature will debate the measure, which has been stalled in the Legislature’s Transportation and Telecommunications Committee.

“I’m pleasantly surprised to see Mayor Stothert’s letter,” said Smith, a fellow Republican, and the chairman of the Transportation Committee.

Nebraska is the only state that denies driver’s licenses for DACA participants. The policy was enacted by former Gov. Dave Heineman, who said that granting licenses would violate a state law prohibiting government benefits to illegal immigrants.

But Stothert, a rising star in the Republican Party, said she supports “a path to legal status for those who came here as a minor.”

“Here in Omaha, we should make children of undocumented workers who are on a path to legal status have the tools they need to be productive members of our community,” she wrote in a letter.

About 2,700 young immigrants in Nebraska have been accepted into the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, started in 2012 by an executive order from Obama. Nationally, close to 600,000 have been granted deferred action status.

But a bill to rescind Nebraska’s ban on licenses received only two votes in the eight-member Transportation Committee several weeks ago. At least five are needed to advance a bill.

Smith, one of three senators who were present but did not vote on Legislative Bill 623, said he remains undecided, but may be persuaded to vote out the bill for debate because it now has 25 cosponsors, a majority of the Legislature’s 49 state senators.

That, he said, sends a “very strong signal” that lawmakers want to debate an issue he characterized as more complicated than a “sound bite.”

Smith said he will probably schedule another committee vote on the bill early next week. If the bill advances, it would likely need at least 30 votes to overcome a veto by Gov. Pete Ricketts, who has said he opposes the idea.

Omaha Sen. Jeremy Nordquist, who introduced LB 623, and Omaha Sen. John McCollister, who chose it as his priority bill, both said Stothert’s support illustrates broad-based backing for the measure. They also said it will provide political cover for other Republicans to support LB 623.

McCollister said it is “good policy” to allow young adults who were brought to Nebraska at a young age, attended high school in the state and are now pursuing college educations or military careers to be allowed to legally drive in the state. Otherwise, they may move away, he said.

“ ‘Nebraska Nice?’ I don’t think (the current policy) quite does that,” the senator said, referring to a state tourism slogan. “‘Nebraska Ill-Advised’ or ‘Nebraska Short-Sighted.’”

An opponent of LB 623 on the committee, Omaha Sen. Beau McCoy, said that the mayor’s letter won’t change his vote.

The bill, he said, is a “direct contradiction” to existing state law that bars state benefits like a driver's license.

Stothert’s letter urged the federal government to adopt comprehensive immigration reform but noted that “reality tells us” many immigrants were brought to the U.S. as children “through no fault of their own.”

“They have learned English, completed school and contribute to our society in many ways,” Stothert wrote. “For most of them, eventual citizenship is their dream.”

Contact the writer: 402-473-9584, paul.hammel@owh.com

http://www.omaha.com/news/legislatur...cfea028bf.html

Where does this phrase "through no fault of their own" come from? The same place "we're a nation of immigrants" came from?

CONTACT Republican Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert to tell her you do not appreciate or support her efforts to aid illegal aliens with driver licenses which 77% of Americans oppose! Call her at 402.444.5000!

Tell her you speak for the 77% of Americans who oppose driver licenses for illegal aliens...
(77% of American adults are opposed to making drivers licenses available to people who are in the country illegally, [November 2007, Rasmussen Reports]
http://www.alipac.us/illegal_immigra...ts_statistics/


Tell her you speak for the 67% of Oregon voters who rejected the same idea by defeating Measure 88 in 2014!
http://www.alipac.us/f12/out-blue-or...ration-314379/

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This activism alert and article is being linked to in today's email alert going out to the nation found at...
http://www.alipac.us/f8/fight-illega...5/#post1459419

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