Thread: OR: Gov. Urging State to Follow Real ID Act

Governor urges state to follow Real ID Act

Immigration debate has slowed the state's move toward compliance

BY BRAD CAIN
The Associated Press

March 18, 2007

Gov. Ted Kulongoski is urging state lawmakers to get moving on a new federal law that requires proof of legal residence to get a driver's license.

Despite his concerns about cost and privacy issues raised by the law, Kulongoski worries that Oregon driver's licenses might no longer be good for boarding commercial airliners or visiting federal office buildings.

"If we don't take action this session to move toward compliance, we could be in danger of not being able to use the Oregon driver's license for federal purposes as soon as next May," Kulongoski said last week.

Approved by Congress in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Real ID Act requires states to bring their driver's licenses under a national standard and to link their records to national databases.

In Oregon, the move toward complying has gotten caught up in the hot-button political debate about illegal immigration.

Some lawmakers say Oregon should stop giving driving privileges to undocumented immigrants when it adopts the new federal requirements, which require proof of citizenship or legal residence before someone can get a driver's license.

Oregon is one of nine states that do not require proof of legal residence to obtain driver's licenses.

Immigrants rights advocates and some agriculture industry officials contend that the current policy has worked well for the state because it encourages illegal workers who are driving anyway to undergo driver's training and pass a test showing familiarity with driving laws.

Some suggest a system of "driving privilege only" cards, which would not qualify as identification for federal purposes but would still allow holders to drive legally.

Kulongoski and lawmakers involved in the Real ID debate said the issue goes beyond illegal immigration.

Like policymakers in more than a dozen other states who have balked at adopting the Real ID act, Oregon officials have complained that Congress didn't give them the money to convert to the new system and that it could be vulnerable to identity theft.

Bowing to those concerns, the Bush administration recently agreed to grant states an extra year and a half to comply with new standards.

Sen. Rick Metsger, the chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, said the clock is ticking, however, and that Oregon and other states will have until October to ask for an extension of the May 2008 deadline to December 2009.

Metsger said legislators in the current session should show good faith by at least complying with the requirement of proof of citizenship or legal residence.

"Over 40 states are way ahead of us on those rules because they already require citizenship or legal presence to get a driver's license," the Welches Democrat said.

He said the Legislature also could pass resolutions "pushing back" on other elements of the Real ID Act on grounds that it's too expensive -- the estimated price tag is $27 million in Oregon alone -- and doesn't go far enough toward safeguarding personal identification.

That could mean delaying action on other Real ID requirements such as creating a license database and redesigning the license itself, he said.

The debate is expected to include a discussion of the driving-only license -- which is allowed under the Real ID law.

Undocumented immigrants wouldn't be the only people involved in that.

Some older citizens may have trouble coming up with birth certificates or other documents required under the Real ID law and could lose their licenses.

However, most of the sparks are expected to fly when the discussion turns to extending driving privileges to noncitizen workers.

Republican Rep. Kim Thatcher, who says state officials have been lax in cracking down on illegal immigration, is sponsoring a bill to bring Oregon into compliance with Real ID Act but prohibit any driving-only license option for undocumented workers.

"We are not going to solve anything by just giving out a driver privilege card," the Keizer lawmaker said. "We will continue to be a magnet for illegal immigration if we don't draw a line here."

One agriculture industry official -- Jeff Stone of the Oregon Association of Nurseries -- said "tens of thousands" of undocumented immigrants are working in Oregon's fields and forests and that making no provision for them to drive legally would be a poor policy choice.

"A lot of our folks in the nursery industry are immigrant workers," Stone said. "We want to make sure they can get to work, be productive and have the necessary skills to drive safely."

http://159.54.226.83/apps/pbcs.dll/arti ... 80333/1042

"A lot of our folks in the nursery industry are immigrant workers," Stone said. "We want to make sure they can get to work, be productive and have the necessary skills to drive safely."

By "immigrant workers," do you mean criminal aliens or do you mean legal immigrants? How about we bring some honesty into this debate for a change!

Criminal aliens should not have a legal driver's license!

Good for the governor of that leftist state!

Why is it not surprising that the governor of a state that is about half a step away from Communism wants to hang a federal ID on his citizens.

Folks, let's not try to solve one problem by creating another larger one. Common sense tells us that if illegals can work around the current ID system they can work around this new and oppressive one. I can already hear the rhetoric about families starving because the illegal alien dad can't work because he can't get an SSN. Next thing you know, SSNs will be provided to illegal aliens under the order of a federal judge and they will be a ble to easily get the new IDs but still won't be deported. In the mean time, each of us will be tracked like cattle by the federal beast. Don't you feel better?

GAWD, I am so embarrassed to think that this is my governor. Around here we call him sleepy Ted. Mod edit.
Driving Privileges? Guess 'ol sleepy Ted has never driven around here. Drink and drive is a typical sport for the "welcomed migrants"