Thread: Santa Barbara Police Chief Sanchez: No grace period for driv

Santa Barbara Police Chief Sanchez: No grace period for drivers without licenses

By Kyle Rokes

January 8, 2011

Despite pressure from a prominent activist group, the city of Santa Barbara has decided not to allow a grace period before towing the cars of people driving without licenses.

Last summer a local activist and PUEBLO called upon Police Chief Cam Sanchez to consider a grace period. They claimed that illegal immigrants were being unfairly targeted, and that sobriety checkpoints were often fronts for finding and towing the cars of illegal immigrants without licenses.

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'You won’t find a constituency in town that says ‘let’s enable illegal behavior.' The only people who would consider doing that are the people at PUEBLO.'

--Santa Barbara City Councilman Dale Francisco

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Sanchez considered the idea of a grace period, but decided to scrap the idea.

The decision has thrilled some elected officials, but further fanned the tension between PUEBLO and some city officials.

“You won’t find a constituency in town that says ‘let’s enable illegal behavior,â€

I'm glad that they aren't give grace periods to illegals in those situations.

I imagine the grace period is given to drivers who have valid licenses. No license? No grace period. End of story. Either way both cars ( driven by licensed and unlicensed drivers are impounded). Why do illegal aliens continue to think they are above the law?

[quote]To Francisco, driving without a license is simply breaking the law.

He said undocumented drivers know they're breaking the law when they drive without licenses.

“Just like they know being here in the country is illegal,â€