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Driver license issue returns

REPLACEMENT: The governor is confident he can legalize the road for undocumented residents.

JIM MILLER; SACRAMENTO BUREAU/THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

SACRAMENTO Gov. Schwarzenegger said Tuesday he was "absolutely positive we'll come up with a great bill" to replace a law granting driver licenses to undocumented immigrants that was repealed days after he took office. It was a strong sign he supports giving driver licenses to California residents in the state illegally.

Schwarzenegger said his office has been working closely with state Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, to craft a successor to SB 60. The law became a lighting rod for criticism during last summer's recall campaign and was repealed at Schwarzenegger's insistence. Many Republicans remain opposed to the idea. And polls conducted last year showed a majority of Californians against giving driver licenses to undocumented immigrants. But Schwarzenegger said he is confident of the outcome.

"It's one of those things that we'll all have to get together and see that this is a good idea and this is the way we move forward," Schwarzenegger said at a Sacramento Press Club lunch. "I'm talking with my Republican friends all the time about it and also with my Democratic friends. We will do it."

Tentative agreement has been reached to grant driver licenses to all undocumented immigrants, with the licenses looking identical to those of other residents, said Dan Savage, Cedillo's chief of staff.

Talks continue on insurance requirements and verifying applicants' identities; those issues were sticking points for Schwarzenegger in the earlier bill. Subjecting applicants to background checks - a demand by some GOP legislators - has not been a main topic during the negotiations, Savage said. Assemblyman John J. Benoit, R-Palm Desert, co-author of legislation repealing SB 60, said he and other Republican colleagues still oppose the idea. "To actually give a legal document to an illegal immigrant, I'm not there," Benoit said.

Backers welcomed Schwarzenegger's apparent support. "There's definitely a need for it," said Jesse Diaz, 39, a graduate student at UC Riverside and a member of the Mexican-American Political Foundation.

"They're going to drive regardless. It's just now the rules will be safer. They're going to have insurance. There will be driver's training. It will be great."

Undocumented immigrants were eligible for driver licenses until a decade ago, when the Legislature changed the law. An estimated 2 million people of driving age are in California illegally. After blocking a similar bill in 2002, former Gov. Gray Davis signed SB 60 in September. Critics charged that he was pandering to Latinos before the recall.

Schwarzenegger denounced the law during his recall campaign. Meanwhile, conservative groups collected signatures to qualify a referendum for the March ballot. The Legislature's majority Democrats begrudgingly voted to repeal the law in late November. Since then, however, the circumstances of the driver-license debate have changed.

Earlier this month, President Bush proposed giving undocumented workers temporary legal status under a plan that would match workers with U.S. employers. The proposal must still be approved by Congress. "If there is a likelihood of a legal worker program, then we ought to wait and see what that is," Benoit said.

Republicans might be more receptive to giving driver licenses to people with temporary work permits, he added. The proposed legislation to replace SB 60, tentatively numbered SB 1160, initially will contain only placeholder language as Cedillo and Schwarzenegger try to hammer out a deal. "At this point we're very confident," Savage said. "They're very engaged, and they're starting to focus on this as an important piece of legislation."