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Proposal would give illegal immigrants authority to drive
By JASON STEIN
608-252-6129
June 1, 2009
Wisconsin would join Utah as the only states in the country to give illegal immigrants a license to drive while still preventing them from using the state cards as official IDs, under a proposal before lawmakers.
The proposal also would prevent law enforcement from using the "driver cards" as a reason to ask whether their holder is in the country legally — a provision that drew criticism Monday from state Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen's office.
Advocates of the plan say it will help make the state's roads safer by helping ensure more people take driving tests and get car insurance. Democrats on the Legislature's budget committee inserted it into their 2009-2011 spending bill early Friday.
"Number one, it's basic safety on the roads. Everybody should know how to drive," Rep. Pedro Colon, D-Milwaukee, who helped get the measure in the budget, said Monday. "Number two, we should know the identity of people behind the wheel."
U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Menomonee Falls, who authored federal legislation to restrict illegal immigrants' access to driver's licenses, said the card proposal would encourage people to be in the state illegally.
"If you're not supposed to be here, you shouldn't be driving here. It's as simple as that," Sensenbrenner said. "Permission to drive equals mobility to go around and get a job and do whatever you want to do."
Washington, Illinois and New Mexico are the only states that allow illegal immigrants to receive driver's licenses. In Hawaii, illegal immigrants can get a state ID, but not a driver's license.
In March 2006, Wisconsin lawmakers and Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat, passed a law requiring driver's license applicants in the state to show they are in the country legally.
But the new proposal, which still needs approval by Doyle and the full Legislature, would create a new card for illegal immigrants six months after the budget is passed. It would:
• Require driver card applicants to meet requirements for driving skills, eyesight, and knowledge of the rules of the road. It would also require applicants to have a federal taxpayer ID number and be a resident of the state for at least six months.
• Allow cardholders to drive a car but prevent them from using it as an official ID for activities such as boarding a plane. The card would be valid for two years, instead of eight years for regular licenses.
• Charge $28 for cards, raising $3.8 million over two years to cover the $2.7 million cost of issuing them.
• Prevent police and state agents from using the card as a basis for asking about the immigration status of someone who "lawfully presents the card for its intended purpose."
The proposal also would prevent insurers from denying car insurance coverage to a cardholder solely because of it.
Mario Sierra, a UW-Madison student and member of the pro-immigrant group Voces De La Frontera, praised the proposal.
"It's not that we are getting back the driver's license that was taken away. But I think it's a step to make people feel that they are part of the community," he said.
In a letter to lawmakers last week, Madison Police Chief Noble Wray urged them to pass the provision, saying it would lead to better educated motorists and help police officers verify the identity of drivers they pull over.
Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain said city officers normally do not ask about immigration status under current policy.
But Bill Cosh, a spokesman for Van Hollen, a Republican, said the attorney general believes that law enforcement ought to be able to contact federal authorities about an illegal immigrant.
"To the extent these proposals limit the ability of law enforcement to work together at the federal, state and local levels, he would be against them," Cosh said.
Colon said police would still be able to make arrests and potentially ask about immigration status if a cardholder had committed a crime such as driving drunk.
Besides Utah, only Tennessee has had such a two-tiered system for driver's licenses, but the state discontinued the licenses after immigrants from other states began seeking the licenses in Tennessee.
Colon said his proposal's residency requirement would prevent that from happening in Wisconsin.
Susan Tully, national field director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates for stricter immigration policies, said she believed immigrants from other states would still seek to obtain them in Wisconsin.
— The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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