Thread: Soto, Bracy lead condemnation of Gov. Scott for vetoing Dream Act driver bill

Soto, Bracy lead condemnation of Gov. Scott for vetoing Dream Act driver bill

By Scott PowersStaff Writer12:05 p.m. EDT, June 5, 2013

Central Florida's largely Hispanic and black Democratic state legislative delegation blasted Gov. Rick Scott Wednesday in Orlando for vetoing a bill that would allow some children of immigrants to obtain Florida driver licenses.
On Tuesday, Scott vetoed HB 235, which had been approved 115-2 in the Florida House and unanimously in the Florida Senate. The bill would have required the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to issue driver licenses to people who have received federal deferments on their immigration status under an executive ordered issued last year by President Barack Obama.
That order offers deferments to the children of undocumented immigrants, provided they were brought here at very young ages and have done nothing wrong. The recipients are dubbed "dreamers" because they were raised in the United States seeking the American Dream even though they and their parents might not have legal immigrant status.
But Scott's veto of HB 235 is not likely to have any practical effect on the prospects of such immigrants to receive Florida driver licenses, according to the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
That's because Florida has been accepting -- and still will accept -- Social Security cards and "unexpired employment authorizations" cards as proof of legal status, said Highway Safety Communications Director Leslie Palmer.

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Pictures: Sinkholes in Central Florida

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She said that her understanding is that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is requiring dreamers to apply for and receive both of those cards before they will be granted dreamer deferments. So all of those people should already have all the documentation they need to get driver licenses in Florida, she said.
"It doesn't affect anything," the department does, Palmer said of the veto.
Still, the veto may have powerful political overtones.
"This veto is simply unconscionable," said state Sen. Darren Soto, D-Orlando, who organized the rally that also included the bill's sponsor, state Rep. Randolph Bracy, D-Orlando, state Sen. Geraldine Thompson, and state Reps. Linda Stewart, Victor Torres, Ricardo Rangel and Joe Saunders.
Torres in particular blasted the governor for what he said was abandoning Florida's Latino community interests. "As you know the governor has failed Florida's Hispanic community once again. This bill would have provided. for the dreamers to have a driver license," Torres said. "I'm asking the Latino community community to come out and vote. We need to change the head, that's for governor for 2014. We need the governor to hear our voices."
In his veto letter, Scott pointed out that Obama's executive order had not been approved by Congress and so lacked the force of law.
“Although the Legislature may have been well-intentioned in seeking to expedite the process to obtain a temporary driver license, it should not have been done by relying on a federal government policy adopted without legal basis," he wrote.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/blogs/political-pulse/os-democrats-blast-scott-over-dream-act-driver-license-bill-20130605,0,144162.post

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