Posted on 07/18/2002 11:57:51 AM PDT by One_American
July 18, 2002
Driver's license rules challenged
Critics claim immigrants are being punished
By MARTIN DeAGOSTINO
Tribune Staff Writer
INDIANAPOLIS -- Strict new requirements for an Indiana driver's license will unfairly penalize both legal and illegal immigrants who need licenses to function in America, according to advocates for immigrant and Latino communities.
The advocates said the new policy was adopted without public input, imposes requirements not called for in Indiana law and threatens to put thousands of unlicensed, uninsured drivers on the streets.
"They're pushing thousands of people to drive illegally and without insurance," said Ildefonso Carbajal, president of the Mexican Alliance and publisher of a bilingual newspaper called La Ola Latino Americana.
Carbajal spoke at a Statehouse news conference Wednesday.
The speaker said the Bureau of Motor Vehicles should scrap its new policy and start anew with public hearings. Absent that, the group said, individual or class-action lawsuits could be filed to challenge the policy.
The BMV announced the policy last Friday and implemented it on Monday. Developed with the Indiana Counter Terrorism and Security Council, headed by Lt. Gov. Joe Kernan, the policy has the stated goal of improving the integrity of Indiana's primary identification system.
Under the policy, new applicants for driver's licenses or state identification cards must provide extensive documentation establishing their identity and residency. The documents include proof of citizenship or of legal immigration status.
The bar is lower for people seeking to renew a license or ID card, but still much stricter than the old rules. The new requirements: a Social Security card and two proofs of Indiana residency.
Kernan said the measures, which were adopted without public hearings or notice, should minimize the kind of false identifications associated with terrorism and help prevent the more ordinary crimes of credit card fraud and identity theft.
But critics believe the policy will punish people whose only crime is seeking work and opportunity where it exists.
"Are we thinking, OK, they'll all go home now?" asked Rebecca Gascho, director of community services at LaCasa of Goshen Inc. "Have we thought about that? What are we prepared to do?"
Gascho spoke by telephone the day before the news conference. And while she raised primarily humanitarian questions, the other advocates also raised legal ones.
Michelle Gutierrez, a staff lawyer with the Hispanic Law Center of Indiana Legal Services Inc., said the new policy represents a state administrative rule that could only be adopted after a defined process of notice, publication, public hearings, final publication and governor's signature.
"By changing the rules ... the Bureau of Motor Vehicles is doing something that is only appropriate for the legislature to do," she said.
Not so, according to Clifford Ong, Indiana's counterterrorism chief and a lawyer who once administered the rules-heavy Alcoholic Beverage Commission.
Ong said state law authorizes some agencies to work by rule and some by policy, and the BMV is authorized to work by policy.
"This is certainly a policy decision that affects a lot of people," he said, "but it's not a law."
Ong said nearly every state has tightened or is tightening rules for driver's licenses in the wake of last year's terror attacks and the nation's new "war on terrorism." While those changes may unduly affect immigrant communities, he said, governments have little choice but to heighten security.
"If we're going to issue state ID cards," he said, "they ought to have some integrity."
According to their opponents, however, the new rules will exclude some immigrants who are here with valid immigration documents that the BMV will not accept.
They introduced Lucia Arteaga, a Mexican national who was cleared for U.S. residency after immigration officials determined that her husband beat her while both were living here. Although Arteaga has a Social Security card and a signed letter from the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the letter does not meet BMV standards.
"Their cursory knowledge of immigration law didn't allow the list to be as complete as it should be," Gutierrez said.
The advocates acknowledged that the new policies will affect far more undocumented workers than people like Arteaga, but said Indiana needs to acknowledge the reality of its immigrants and its dependence on them.
"They're doing the work that none of us wants," Carbajal said.
Staff writer Martin DeAgostino:
mdeagostino@sbtinfo.com
(317) 634-1707
Of course entering the country illegally was no crime.
Dear Indiana, please send a copy of your policy to the DMV in California.
I am sick and tired of that line.
Two people are standing in line at the Stockton, California DMV. They are both new residents in the United States.
The first person (next in line) is Ms. Kwan from Korea. She applied for approval of her resident visa in Seoul and was granted her legal documents to reside in the US. She flew over on KAL flight 004 and immediately reported to Immigration Authorities for examination of her documents and other landing procedures.
The person after her, is Mr. Chavez. Mr. Chavez, upon his third try, was able to cross the border illegally just east of Tecate at 2 a.m. on February 14th, 2002, spirited away further north by a cross border smuggling gang.
Question, Mr. Carbajal. Should they both receive equal treatment by the taxpayer-funded licensing agency?"
I'm also tired of this. For example, I would prefer to have all the costs in a head of lettuce. As it is now, I pay 99 cents at the store, but I have no idea of social costs (medical, welfare, etc.). It would be better to have legal Americans pick it, price it at $3.00, and let the maketplace decide if its worth it.
Well, that would work for me...
"Have we thought about that? What are we prepared to do?"
Since you asked Ms. Gascho, I'd suggest a) a greyhound bus headed back to the country of origin and b) enforcment on the borders.
Deport 'em? Naw....draw ands quarter the bastards!@
Actually they crossed the border illegally, but maybe other than that...
Actually when someone drives illegally and without insurance, it is a personal decision to do so. Nobody forces anybody to violate these laws.
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