Driver license issue returns-Swartzennegger

The Press Enterprise ^ | January 28, 2004 | JIM MILLER

[Zipporah]

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

By / Sacramento Bureau

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positive we'll come up with a great bill" to replace a law granting driver licenses to undocumented immigrants that was repealed days after he took office.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 The law became a lighting rod for criticism during last summer's recall campaign and was repealed at Schwarzenegger's insistence.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.

Gov. Schwarzenegger at the Sacramento Press Club: "This is the way we move forward."

"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 grantdriver 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."

Reach Jim Miller at (916) 445-9973 or jmiller@pe.com

[Happy2BMe]

WHEREAS everything you said is a fact, the truth, doesn't court the Hispanic vote, and seeks to maintain the security and sovereignty of our border with Mexico and further feed the gluttonous mouth of the greedy politicians and businesses they pander to - said measure are hereby VETOED.

Hide the truth and shoot the messenger.

[templar]

.., unless part of the law authorizing it mandates that all persons not providing proof of legal residency be turned over to the INS for deportation.

Wrong approach. There should be forms available at the counter that would immediately grant legal residency status to those who can't can't prove it.

[dangus]

>>>>Bush's Amnesty Plan>>>> >>You can not even be correct in your terminology. Do you not agree that one should be honest in there representations?>> Calling it "amnesty" is being exceedingly charitable, actually.

Amnesty, by definition, is allowing someone to go unpunished for a crime, fault, or misdeed so as to allow for a correction.

Think of a library amnesty: A person returns the book in exchange for not being fined. Amnesty means you give the book back.

Amnesty for Vicente Fox's invasion forces means shipping them back to Tijuana, no fines, no jail time. Bush's "amnesty" is letting them steal the book.

[B Knotts]

Yep. It's the same old crap. Liberal trolls who hate actual conservatives and defend any liberalism coming out of "Republican" administrations.

[dangus]

Didn't mean that to Mock Ron Paul... I like the guy. The laughter merely was meant to express surprise and delight.

[dangus]

Deport Arnold!

[B Knotts]

ROFL

Sounds like a plan!

[Zipporah]

AMEN to that!! It is obvious that we (Americans) are being lied to daily. It's time for the people to look at all with a critical eye. The mainstream media manipulates and spins (that includes 'fair and balanced' Fox). I don't know what is going on here but I tell you, it's very disturbing.

[Zipporah]

Absolutely right on and excellent!!! I find this statement really interesting:

"Gov. Schwarzenegger at the Sacramento Press Club: "This is the way we move forward." ".. move forward? Now what does that mean? The connection with Maria Schiever's father to Maldef should be very worrisome in my mind.

[TheSpottedOwl]

I like it. We'll have to organize like we did to get rid of Gray Davis. Maybe on a national scale.

[Zipporah]

"Could someone help me understand both sides of the argument as to why the big push to keep the illegal immigrants in the U.S. other than just votes."

There IS more to this.. I was in the same quandary as you when this all began to surface on Christmas eve.. when the 'trial balloon' was launched. I've done a lot of reading and research.. I'd suggest you do the same. The answer is there.. peel back the layers.

[Zipporah]

... to please the corporations that own their souls.

I first believed it was to get the Hispanic vote, then believed it was the corporations.. but as I've researched and continued to read.. it is I believe something else all together.

[calcowgirl]

Don't let the conservative haters on this thread get you down. Their conscience may be provoking them toward irrational rage.

Thanks for the moral support. They almost pushed me to 'rational rage'. LOL.

[TigersEye]

No surprise.

[TigersEye]

This man talks about principles. Liberty ain't for sissies!

[Zipporah]

This my concern about Keyes: "William Kristol, a Republican strategist who was Keyes' roommate at Harvard University"

[Zipporah]

And this is my concern about Kristol: "William Kristol is the founder of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) and was one of the signers of the January 26, 1998, PNAC letter sent to President William Jefferson Clinton."

[Zipporah]

"I've always thought they should give drivers licenses to illegals. ".. but that is not what Californians wanted.. they voted against Davis on this issue. Now they've been stabbed in the back.. HEY we've ALL been stabbed in the back come to think of it.

[dread78645]

Didn't mean that to Mock Ron Paul...

S'alright.

Before I moved, I was in Pal's 14th and always got my money and my vote. It was nice to have a Rep. that you can agree with most of the time.

[McGavin999]

You only highlighted a portion of my statement. Any drivers license should be a different color so it will be easily recognizable as belonging to someone who is not here under legal immigration. It should have the date of entry clearly marked and the date of exit clearly marked. They should have to pass a test, provide insurance, and if they get caught driving after the expiration date they should be immediately taken to the border.

It's not the drivers licenses that the people object to, it giving them a drivers license that looks exactly like your drivers license. It would grant a legitimacy that they don't have. Give them a license that clearly identifies them as a "visitor", it should expire within 3 months.