New Bill Offers Special Licenses

An effort to allow undocumented immigrants to drive legally in California was resurrected Thursday in the state Senate, this time in a form Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has embraced.

The new measure, approved by the Senate transportation committee on an 8-to-5 vote, represents a substantial change from previous versions, which helped inflame the 2003 recall effort against then-Gov. Gray Davis and contributed to Schwarzenegger’s victory. But it still faces substantial obstacles.

The revised bill from Sen. Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles) would create a “driving-only license,” with a special design or color to differentiate it from regular licenses. The licenses would be free of the usual $25 fee.

Advocates for allowing illegal immigrants to get licenses last year had decried such documents as invitations for mistreatment, comparing them to the yellow stars that Nazis required Jews to wear. But a change in federal law gives states no other option.

Under a measure signed into law by President Bush last week, the U.S. government and the airline industry will recognize as valid identification only licenses granted to people who prove they are in the country legally. That law requires states that grant licenses to undocumented immigrants -- as 10 do -- to create special licenses.

In 2003, Davis signed a law giving illegal immigrants access to regular licenses. But after the recall, Schwarzenegger persuaded the Democrat-controlled Legislature to repeal it. Last year, the Legislature again approved such a bill, but Schwarzenegger vetoed it.

Interviewed on Tony Snow’s show syndicated by Fox News Radio on Thursday, Schwarzenegger said he supports a driver’s license that clearly identifies the owner as an immigrant.

“This is what I’ve offered,” he said. “I said, ‘Look, we have to put a marker on it, we have to give the undocumented immigrants a license that is just a permit to drive, not a document that you can use in a bank and go through airports and do all the things that normally you do with a driver’s license.’ ”

However, his spokeswoman, Margita Thompson, said Schwarzenegger would not consider new measures on the issue until the federal Department of Homeland Security decides the standards for the licenses. The standards will spell out what qualifies as a distinctive marker and what documents illegal immigrants will need to prove their identities.

“There’s a lot of activity that needs to happen at the federal level before we do anything at the state level, so any state activity would be premature,” Thompson said.

Cedillo’s proposal, SB 60, may have trouble even getting out of the Legislature. As currently written, the bill requires support from two-thirds of the Legislature, and Republicans on the transportation panel were all opposed to it.

Without GOP support, the bill would lack enough votes to pass. The bill requires more than a majority vote because it would take effect immediately if signed into law, rather than be delayed until the start of 2006 like most new laws.

Even some Democrats expressed reservations about moving quickly on the proposal. “I would ask you to take a little more time to allow the public to digest this,” Sen. Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego) told Cedillo.

Noting that the federal law does not go into effect until 2009, Sen. Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) said, “I think the timing is such that we not move along in a rush.” Lowenthal voted for the measure and Kehoe abstained.

Cedillo insisted that state lawmakers act quickly because many illegal immigrants are already driving without licenses or insurance, and thus pose a greater hazard than if they were authorized by the state. He said he was merely following the wishes of the Republican-controlled Congress.

“The federal government has spoken, and this would put us in compliance,” he said.

That suggestion was strongly objected to by Republicans and opponents of illegal immigration who testified at the hearing.

“Sen. Cedillo has grossly misrepresented the provisions of the federal law,” said Sen. Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks). “The objectionable part of this bill is the part that is not required of federal law.”

After the hearing, Cedillo said he had conceded to all of Schwarzenegger’s demands: “I’m giving him exactly what he’s asked for.”