New regulations for noncitizens create run on driver's licenses(Is Your State Doing it's Part?)

TALLAHASSEE -- Swamped with immigrants rushing to obtain driver's licenses before new anti-terrorism regulations go into effect, the state Thursday hurried to immediately impose the new rules, restricting noncitizens to just four driver's license offices in South Florida.

The change created chaos across Miami-Dade and Broward counties, as confused would-be drivers traveled from one licensing office to another, trying to find the ones that handle noncitizen applications. At one point Thursday, Florida Highway Patrol troopers were summoned for crowd control.

``They were angry because they couldn't get a license on the spot,'' said Sandra Lambert, director of the driver's license division at the state Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles.

The state had been planning to enact the new restrictions next week, but quickly moved up the schedule when it became apparent that people were trying to dodge the change, Lambert said.

``We realized if we waited any longer, hundreds more old-style licenses could be issued,'' she said.

Under the new rules, noncitizens -- including those holding permanent residency ``green cards'' -- who apply for new licenses will get 30-day paper permits while their identification documents are checked. If cleared, they will be mailed licenses that expire at the same time as their visas. Also, noncitizens will no longer be able to renew their licenses or report address changes over the telephone or the Internet.

And they can no longer go to any driver's license office. Instead, they can conduct business at only two offices in Miami-Dade and two in Broward, where staffers have been trained by the Immigration and Naturalization Service to recognize altered or counterfeit documents. Those offices also have been supplied with equipment so that the department can keep copies of the documents. Six other offices will accommodate noncitizens outside of South Florida.

Lambert said the department plans to add more offices to handle noncitizen applications as employees undergo training.

There are no estimates on the numbers of non-U.S. citizens in South Florida, though the figure for permanent resident aliens is believed to number in the tens of thousands in Miami-Dade and Broward. And there are about 30,000 to 40,000 Hondurans and Nicaraguans in South Florida with temporary residence and work permits that expire in July 2002.

The state agency was tipped off to the run on licenses when they stocked the new application forms in the four South Florida offices on Saturday. As people learned this week that those four offices would give noncitizens only the temporary licenses, they began to flock to the other ones, Lambert said.

``People realized you had to wait to be mailed a [permanent] license at those offices, but word spread that you can get a driver's license on the spot in the other offices,'' she said. ``We had huge lines in the other offices.''

The new regulations were developed afterthe Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to make sure that Florida driver's licenses expire at the same time as foreigner's visas. The changes link the duration of driver's licenses to the expiration of visas and give driver's license officials time to check identification.

``The thinking is that if you no longer have a legal presence in the country, you no longer should be entitled to a driver's license,'' Lambert said.

At one of the two offices in Miami-Dade where noncitizens could get licenses, hopeful drivers stretched 40 deep out the front door, spilling into the parking lot.

``I cannot believe this, '' said Peruvian Cintia Celi, sitting in the crowded waiting room at the department's central Miami office at 901 NW 39th Ave., which along with the office at 12601 NW 42nd Ave. in Opa-locka is authorized to handle noncitizen applications.

Celi, who has lived in Coral Gables since she was a teen, had one word to sum up a day spent reinstating her license: ``Hell.''

``I went to a place by my house, and they sent me here,'' said Celi, 25. ``But they didn't tell me I had to bring papers, so I had to go back. Lines all day.''

The office received about 300 referrals from other locations Thursday, said office manager Maritza Zea. That's about twice the numbers her workers see in a typical day. Though the number of employees had been increased to handle the expected influx, there was a backlog by mid-afternoon.

``It's chaos,'' Zea said. ``Just having to make people understand what they need and why they need it.''

In Broward, at the bureau on Pembroke Road and University Drive in Pembroke Pines, lines were not as long as they were last month, according to one mother and daughter who have made three trips to the bureau in recent weeks.

``The last couple of times we were here it has been outrageous,'' said Lin Trahan of Cooper City, whose daughter Sarah, 16, was waiting to get her license.

Workers at the bureau told the two they could try other locations that serve only U.S. citizens if they wanted to avoid longer lines, but the Pembroke Pines location was the most convenient.

It wasn't convenient for Jose Benitez, a permanent resident from Nicaragua. Benitez, a mechanic, lives in Miami and traveled with friend Xilena Mariano to three different offices Thursday.

The first, on Coral Reef Drive in South Miami-Dade, didn't give licenses to noncitizens. The second, on LeJeune Road, said it was too busy, so Benitez, who has lived in the country for 17 years, went to Pembroke Pines to renew his license. ``This is very different than what we're used to,'' Mariano said.

Chinese-born Neo Mi didn't have to renew his license -- yet. He was accompanying a fellow countrywoman as she took her test at the Northwest 39th Avenue office.

``She went in there at 8 a.m.,'' he said at 3 p.m, waiting in the crowded parking lot. ``I haven't seen her since.''

From Saturday's Orlando Sentinel:

Rules for immigrants' drivers licenses tighten

By Mark Hollis and Jody A. Benjamin | Florida Correspondents Posted December 15, 2001

Dulcia Ulloa, a restaurant cook from Honduras, was ready to exchange her temporary Florida drivers license for a permanent one Friday, but she got a surprise when she showed up at the Lauderdale Lakes Department of Motor Vehicles.

A state inspector snapped up Ulloa's temporary license, as well as her 3-year-old state ID card, and told her to come back with proper paperwork from the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Ulloa, who came to the United States after Hurricane Mitch, is undocumented. Now she has no Florida identification either. Not only can she no longer drive, but Ulloa said she also has no identification with which to cash her paycheck.

"They took it all and left me with nothing," said Ulloa, 28, brooding outside the state office on Oakland Park Boulevard.

"Why don't they just make a list of all the bad people and check my name against that? Why are they doing this to people who are working and doing what is right," she asked.

Rooting out potential terrorists is a goal of the new state law that cracks down on immigrants' drivers licenses, according to Gov. Jeb Bush.

The law was to take effect next week. As word spread in South Florida's immigrant communities, some lined up at state offices to beat the deadline, and state officials implemented the changes early.

On Friday, state officials apologized for public confusion and long lines. But they said it would have been irresponsible not to try to keep so many people from dodging the new rules.

The new provisions fall under a sweeping anti-terrorism executive order that was developed by a security task force after Sept. 11.

The biggest changes affecting driver licenses link the duration of the licenses to the expiration of visas and give law enforcement time to check an applicant's identification.

Authorities pushed the changes because many of the men who commandeered the planes in the Sept. 11 attacks got Florida drivers licenses easily.

Under the new rules being implemented statewide, all residents who are not citizens of the United States or Canada will receive only temporary, 30-day driving permits while officials verify their backgrounds.

Their licenses will expire when their visas expire. Previously, immigrants were eligible for the same six-year licenses that citizens get.

State officials said the stampedes in South Florida didn't occur in Central Florida, but the new rules apply here, too.

Orange County residents who are not citizens of the United States or Canada and who wish to apply for a Florida drivers license or ID card must go to the Winter Park drivers license office at 940 W. Canton Ave. For an appointment, call 407-623-1098.

Mark Schlueb of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Mark Hollis and Jody A. Benjamin are reporters for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, a Tribune Publishing newspaper.

Yes, I saw that reported and thank you for repeating it. The fact of the matter is that illegals are pamperped and protected but most government agencies. I gave the example weeks ago about our California town. We just updated, installed bathrooms, seating areas, even new fancy pavement and lunch area to an area of town known as "the wall". This is a place where it is well known illegals congregate and wait for day work. Of course, dayworkers are not put on any official payroll and do not contribute to the taxes of the state because they are paid under the table. In effect, the government is promoting and maintaining the illegals. They even painted lines for the workers to que up in. Of course, without the bathrooms there was a big problem with people peeing in the streets, among other things. Which brings to mind another thing I saw the other day. I was in the parking lot of one of the malls in town. A Mexican man walked his little boy up to one of the planters and the watched as the little boy peed on it. Now, I know there are bathrooms inside the mall. I have also been in Mexico and seen the kids pull down their pants in the gutters. But the point is, I am a law abiding person and it is a shock to me that the paddy wagons do not come and round up the illegals. They are right there in the open completely oblivious to the fact that they might be doing anything wrong. Of course! They have been given a pass for years!

December 13, 2001

A national security wreck

Phil Kent

When South Carolina Attorney General Charlie Condon recently ordered his state Department of Public Safety to "take whatever steps necessary to ensure that no illegal alien is issued a driver's license," he rightly identified the problem as a national security matter. To be sure, the crisis is real — as many as four of the 19 September 11 terrorists possessed Virginia driver's licenses, enabling them to transact business, open bank accounts and even enter flight schools.

Despite the fact that all the terrorists were illegal aliens, they participated in day-to-day American life with alarming ease.

Yet the fallout from September 11 in terms of U.S. immigration and state public-safety policies has landed squarely on another cornerstone of American representative government — elections and voting.

When federal lawmakers enacted so-called motor voter registration nationwide in the early 1990s, illegal aliens obtaining driver's licenses have become a measurable voting bloc in our elections.

In one close 1996 California congressional race, as many as 600 foreign nationals illegally cast votes, and the election was decided by less than 900 votes. As several aliens have testified before congressional election-reform committees in the wake of the November 2000 election debacle, voting has been a regular and easy task for them. In four states currently issuing driver's licenses to illegals — including Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Utah, apparently thousands of illegals have voted. This is more than a social outrage; it's legal chaos.

Part of the problem lies in the inability of various state government offices to identify illegal aliens and to share information once illegals are identified. In most states, there is little or no communication between public safety departments that issue driver's licenses and state election authorities charged with maintaining accurate voter lists, let alone with the U.S. Social Security

Administration and Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Two principal voting restrictions allowed under the U.S. Constitution and federal law involve non-citizens and those who have been convicted of serious crimes. Some state procedures imposed after motor voter automatically register homeowners and drivers, including many non-citizens. At stake is the illegal dilution of citizen votes by non-citizens.

Another dozen states are considering whether to extend driver's licenses to illegals, even in the wake of heightened national sensitivity to illegal immigration since September 11. Georgia Democratic Gov. Roy Barnes, who publicly stated in 1999 that Latino voter-registration drives "aren't registering Republicans," is among the most aggressive in pushing for alien driver's licenses. Politics must not be a determining factor when protecting constitutional rights.

Illegal immigrants have chosen to break the law by not following normal INS procedures providing them necessary documents to obtain driver's licenses. States issuing licenses to illegals flout such requirements, resulting in waivers of criminal background checks and safeguards against the growing problem of "stolen" identities. Mr. Condon points out that "thousands upon thousands" of illegals receiving driver's licenses in neighboring North Carolina come to his state to receive licenses under rules of reciprocity, further complicating any effort to track the recipients.

The four states currently issuing driver's licenses to illegals are handing over the "keys to the kingdom" of social and economic interaction, without the necessary checks to ensure that illegals will play by the rules. They've already demonstrated they won't.

And so we consider voting. I recently registered to vote in my new hometown while updating my driver's license. A Motor Vehicles Department worker politely asked whether I would like to register to vote, and I said yes. That was the extent of the transaction. No inquiry as to citizenship, Social Security number, or even whether I was currently a registered voter (which I am). How many times has the same transaction occurred, without the safeguards, resulting in illegal aliens registering to vote? The statistics tell the tale — literally tens of thousands of times across the United States.

A legal challenge to the motor-voter crisis and illegal aliens will involve dramatic constitutional issues touching on cornerstones of American government — voting, jury duty, participation in civic life and protection of the ballot box. But the question is simple — will we defend basic processes of representative government, or will we undermine the very system that has become so attractive to millions around the globe? The answer will say much about us.

Phil Kent is president of Southeastern Legal Foundation, a constitutional public-interest law firm researching legal action on the driver's license issue.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<I don't know how many of you realize this, but Mohammad Atta was stopped, in Broward COunty, by a cop, and was issued a warrent to appear in court for some kind of traffic violation. (I think it was speeding, or something like that.) At the time he was pulled over, he had a valid FL license, even though I believe his legal documents had already expired. Atta then failed to pay the fine or show up in court. No one went after him in Broward. This was all reported in a Fort Lauderdale newspaper. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The troublesome part of the this situation which many folks may not get is:
Atta legally could drive with his foreign driver's license for up to a year under Florida law.
In that case, if he were stopped by the a Florida police officer they would of required he present his passport and visa also.
By aquiring a Florida driver's license the police officer had no way to know whether the traffic offender was a US citizen or an illegal immigrant.

The issuance of a State Driver's License allows much more freedom and rights than just driving alone.

It is about time Florida got it right. There is backlash initially, but Florida will soon be a "looked up to state" in regards to reciprocity.

So sad that it had to take so many lives lost and such a tragedy as 9-11, for the division of DMV to look at these issues that folks upclose and personal day to day have been saying for years.

From today's Naples [FL] Daily News:

Noncitizens find new rules, long lines to get driver licenses

Saturday, December 15, 2001 By ALEX VEIGA, Associated Press

MIAMI — Scores of immigrants seeking driving permits or ID cards waited in long lines Friday as state officials expedited anti-terrorism rules restricting how noncitizens obtain Florida driver licenses.

The changes make it easier for state officials to verify the immigration status of applicants and ties the expiration of their driver licenses to the expiration of their visas.

Tony Latour, left, of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, checks identification cards belonging to Lisabeth Elias, right, Friday in Miami, as Elias and others wait in line for driver's licenses. State officials expedited anti-terrorism rules restricting how non-U.S. citizens obtain Florida driver licenses, resulting in long lines at local motor vehicles bureaus. Alan Diaz/AP

It's all aimed at making it more difficult for would-be terrorists to blend in. Thirteen of the 19 terrorists suspected of being involved in the Sept. 11 attacks were known to have Florida ID cards or driving permits.

State officials imposed the changes a week earlier than planned to stem a rush by immigrants seeking to avoid the new rules. That resulted in long lines and frustration at South Florida license offices as applicants were funneled to four sites in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

"It's good that they take these measures, but not that they restrict things so much," said Bert Sosa, who had been waiting for about an hour to apply for his tractor-trailer driving permit.

Sosa was one of about 60 people standing outside one of the two driver license offices in Miami-Dade County assigned to process permit applications from noncitizens.

The line led from the parking lot into the one-story building. Many of the applicants had waited for two hours or more just to draw a number. They were then asked to wait until their number was called so they could enter and wait behind about 40 people already inside.

Two driver license officials circulated in the parking lot, making sure people carried all the necessary documents and identification and asking if they were U.S. citizens.

Sosa, 37, came from Cuba 11 months ago. He said he first learned of the rule changes when he went to a driver license office near his home in Hialeah, northwest of Miami, but was told he had to go to one of the two approved offices.

Sosa said he first went to the office in Opa-locka, a city that borders Hialeah.

"There were too many people," Sosa said.

Yunier Ramirez, 19, waited two hours in line before he was allowed to draw No. 77. The Cuban-born Ramirez said he came to the United States eight years ago and has permanent resident status.

Ramirez said he lost his driver license and figured he could get one without hassle to cash his paycheck, but was turned away from another driver license office.

"I lost a day of work," Ramirez said.

Before, anyone with the proper documents could walk into a driver license office and walk out with a permit or ID the same day.

Now, noncitizens receive a 30-day temporary paper permit. During that time, the applicants' documents are copied and crosschecked with immigration authorities. If everything matches, the applicants are mailed a license.

"It looked like a last-minute rush to get in under the old rules so we went ahead and implemented (the new rules) since we've got the equipment and trained people on site," Florida Department of Motor Vehicles spokesman Robert Sanchez said.

One office each in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Orange counties were also accepting applications from noncitizens. Three others will be added later, Sanchez said.

Staff at the offices have been trained to recognize faked immigration documents and to work with immigration officials, Sanchez said.

Gov. Jeb Bush said Friday that noncitizens should not receive a license that expires after their visas, so he ordered the rules changed.

"People were using this ID to commit acts of war against our country, to provide identification to access things which ultimately brought tremendous grief and hardship to a lot of people," he said.

Olga Cordoves, 54, arrived from Cuba 18 months ago. She was waiting in line to obtain an ID card and carried her passport and green card. She was not upset over her hour-long wait.

"It's good that they're taking control to avoid future (terrorist) problems," said Cordoves, a former mathematics teacher.

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