Measure grants driving rights to undocumented immigrants

Published June 15, 2009 | 12:04 a.m.

Special driver cards intended to improve safety on roadways

BY TERRY FLORES
tflores@kenoshanews.com

A plan to offer special cards that would allow undocumented immigrants a legal means to drive vehicles in the state survived the Assembly’s budget vote early Saturday.

The driver cards would be issued to people without proof of legal presence in the country, but would be used only for the purposes of driving and not as documentation to determine immigration status, according to the proposal. The proposal was approved by the joint finance committee in late May.

The budget was approved 50-48, almost exclusively along party lines, with no Republicans voting in favor of it. Republicans offered to amend the section pertaining to the driver cards, but the measure was tabled along with other amendments, said state Rep. Samantha Kerkman, R-Randall.

“Our amendment was basically to take it out of the joint finance version,â€