New York Times
By Jennifer Medina
August 8, 2015
When
Alberto Fraire drives past a police car these days, he no longer
worries about steep fines, or perhaps being hauled to jail and tangling
with the immigration system.
When California began issuing driver’s licenses to undocumented
immigrants this year, he was one of the first in line.
“There’s
a huge sense of relief now; it’s a psychological thing,” said Mr.
Fraire, 37, who came to the United States with his parents from Mexico
more than 25 years ago
and recently leased a new black BMW to celebrate receiving his license
in May. “I am not completely secure, but I don’t have to worry every
time I get into my car.”
Mr.
Fraire is part of an extraordinary milestone. In the first six months
of this year, more than half of the new driver’s licenses issued by
California went to undocumented
immigrants like him.
Even
now, months after the program went into effect, lines regularly begin
at the Department of Motor Vehicles in Los Angeles by 6 a.m., a sign of
the continuing changes
in the state’s population. D.M.V. officials predict that they will
issue nearly 1.5 million licenses to undocumented immigrants within
three years. Of the 883,000 total licenses issued from January to the
end of July, 443,000 were granted to undocumented immigrants,
the officials said.
Many
in the state applaud the license program, as well as other efforts by
California to integrate undocumented immigrants into the economy, saying
it simply reflects
the demographic reality. California is home to nearly three million
illegal immigrants, about 25 percent of all such immigrants in the
country. More than half of the state’s residents are immigrants or
children of immigrants, with Latinos making up the largest
ethnic group.
While
an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws has languished in
Congress, many undocumented immigrants have established themselves in
California over decades. Thanks
to recent legislative measures, they can receive financial aid and
student loans to attend state universities and can be approved to
practice more than 40 professions, including law, architecture and
dentistry.
Mr. Fraire, for example, works as an electrician and plans to apply for a contractor’s license so he can open his own business.
Most
of the immigrant drivers who are now getting their licenses have been
on the roads for years, usually driving registered cars with insurance
to minimize the possibility
of steep fines or of having their cars impounded.
But
critics say that with measures like the driver’s license program, the
state is interfering with federal policy. They argue that such laws will
only entice more immigrants
to enter the country illegally, increasing the need for public
spending.
“It
creates even more of a magnet in what is already basically a sanctuary
state,” said Joe Guzzardi, a spokesman for Californians for Population
Stabilization, which
advocates stricter immigration policies. “These are very tangible
rewards to people who have knowingly and willingly violated the law.”
Still,
nearly 65 percent of the state’s residents see immigrants as a net
benefit to the state, according to a January poll by the Public Policy
Institute of California,
a San Francisco-based research group. Many of the laws offering
benefits of various kinds have sailed through the State Legislature with
little controversy, often with support from both parties.
California
is hardly alone in offering benefits to undocumented immigrants; a
dozen states allow them to get driver’s licenses, and more offer
in-state tuition rates at
public universities. But no other state’s efforts come close to the
breadth of those California officials have pursued.
Under
the budget approved this year, children from low-income families,
regardless of their immigration status, will receive subsidized health
care. Lawmakers are also
considering legislation to allow undocumented immigrants to pay for
health insurance through the state’s public exchange. And a bill that
would give agricultural workers permits and protect them from
deportation, the kind of policy that has historically been
in the federal domain, cleared its first legislative hurdle with nearly
unanimous support. Huntington Park, a suburb of Los Angeles, is moving
this week to appoint undocumented immigrants to two unpaid advisory
board positions.
“If
Congress isn’t going to act, this state will find its own way,” said
Assemblyman Luis Alejo, a Democrat and the author of the driver’s
license legislation and the
agricultural bill.
The shift in public opinion also reflects the demographic transformation of the state.
“Most
Latinos know somebody who is undocumented, and we’re not some marginal
community,” said Angelica Salas, the executive director of the Coalition
for Humane Immigrant
Rights of Los Angeles, which has lobbied for many of the state
programs. “We’re really just going to some level of common sense. We’ve
done in-state tuition and professional licenses for more than a million
people. Lives have changed significantly, and the
sky has not fallen.”
In
other states, there has been greater resistance. For example, in
Connecticut, which began offering driver’s licenses to undocumented
immigrants this year, there was
an initial surge in applicants, leading to complaints about long delays
for permits and driver’s license exams. The state’s General Assembly
expected 54,000 applications in the first three years; nearly 50,000
were submitted in the first six months.
Maryland
has issued roughly 60,000 licenses to undocumented immigrants since
January 2014, while Colorado has given out about 10,000.
In
2013, after California’s Legislature approved the plan to issue the
licenses, officials spent nearly a year working out the details,
including what the licenses would
look like and what identification documents would be accepted.
Initially, officials worried that eligible immigrants would not try to
obtain licenses for fear that it was a trap. Instead, in January, when
the licenses became available, the morning lines of
applicants stretched around D.M.V. offices. The state hired 1,000 new
workers and opened four offices that are intended specifically to help
with the new licenses and that remain open as late as 10 p.m.
“Right
now, we only drive if there is no other choice, but that is often,”
said Roberto Tadeo, 40, as he waited to take his written exam one recent
morning. Mr. Tadeo
had spent the last hour driving from his home in South Los Angeles to a
new D.M.V. office in the city’s northern suburbs. Clutching the Mexican
passport he used to prove his identity, he looked over his road sign
flashcards one more time. “Now I have to prove
I’ve been doing it safely all this time.”
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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