Contact
Subscribe
License debate will likely be another train wreck
The Roundhouse in Santa Fe (Photo by Peter St. Cyr)
Most agree that policymakers need to address issues with the law allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses, but the governor and many Democrats are at odds over what to do. A victory by either side or a compromise appears to be unlikely again this year.
An investigation has found potential fraud by some immigrants who have New Mexico driver’s licenses; a spokesman for Gov. Susana Martinez says that’s another sign that the state’s license “is not secure.”
The Associated Press investigation, which was detailed in a Tuesday article, found that “addresses of dozens of the same businesses and homes across New Mexico were used over and over again by people to get driver’s licenses in a pattern that suggests potential fraud by immigrants trying to game the system.”
For example, “In one instance, 48 foreign nationals claimed to live at a smoke shop in Albuquerque to get a license,” the report states. “In another case, more than a dozen claimed to live at an automotive repair shop over a one-year period.”
Martinez and some others might tout the report as additional evidence of the need to repeal the New Mexico law – one of only two in the nation – that allows undocumented immigrants to obtain licenses. But Democrats in the N.M. Senate caucused Tuesday and decided to dig in their heels, insisting that amending the current law, not repealing it, is the way to go.
“This issue has drawn national attention and it has made one thing very clear: The current law must be strengthened to include provisions that clearly address the flaws,” Senate Democrats said in a statement released after they emerged from their caucus. “Repealing the law and forcing a fraction of the driving population to go without proper licensing, registration or insurance puts New Mexican families at risk.”
With both sides agreeing that there’s a problem that needs fixed but set in their opposing views about how to do it – amending the law versus repealing it – the debate over the issue appears to be headed for the same bitter and divisive train wreck that consumed so much time during the Legislature’s last regular session a year ago.
The debate could ramp up this afternoon, when the House Human and Labor Resources Committee is scheduled to consider HB 103, sponsored by Rep. Andy Nuñez, I-Hatch. That’s the Martinez-backed bill that would repeal the driver’s license law.
You’ll be able to watch the committee hearing by clicking here; the start time depends on when the floor session ends and other factors. If the debate over Nuñez’s bill happens today, NMPolitics.net will liveblog it.
House, Senate likely at odds again
The debate over the issue was often tense during the 2011 regular session. After a House committee tabled Nuñez’s bill, he pushed for a procedural vote that would bypass committees and bring the bill to the floor for consideration. Speaker Ben Luján delayed that attempt with a controversial ruling to adjourn for the day.
But that didn’t stop Nuñez. Following two days of policy debate and procedural wrangling, eight Democrats joined him and the GOP caucus in passing the Martinez-backed repeal bill.
The Senate later voted to keep licenses for undocumented immigrants, passing what Senate Democrats called compromise legislation that would implement “stricter and tougher requirements for foreign nationals to obtain driver’s licenses,” including “a six-month residency requirement as well as fingerprints for foreign nationals in order to be eligible for a N.M. driver’s license.”
Martinez said she would veto the Senate bill, and lawmakers couldn’t reconcile differences between the two pieces of legislation, so the debate died.
Nuñez intends to force a floor vote on his bill this year, if necessary, and there’s a good chance the House will pass it again. If the Tuesday statement from Senate Democrats holds, there’s little chance of that chamber passing Nuñez’s bill.
“There are more than 90,000 foreign nationals with licenses, and 97 percent of them have complied with our state’s licensing requirements,” Senate Democrats said in their statement. “Repealing the law would not advance public safety, would not help law enforcement and would not eliminate instances of fraud. A sweeping approach may create safety issues. We need to address those actually committing fraud while making sure that everyone driving is licensed, registered and insured.”
Pleas for compromise
Martinez has threatened to inflict election pain on those who oppose her effort to repeal the law – an effort polling has shown is backed by the majority of New Mexicans. All lawmakers’ seats are up for grabs this year, and Martinez’s political action committee has half million dollars in the bank.
Still, at least two Democratic lawmakers representing swing districts are sticking their necks out by seeking compromise. In the House, Rep. Bill O’Neill, D-Albuquerque, has sponsored legislation that, in his words, “repeals the 2003 law and substitutes instead a provisional license for these same foreign nationals who do not have a Social Security number.”
“With this license they can still secure car insurance, and lawfully drive themselves to work, or to church, or to school to pick up their children. It cannot, however, be used to travel outside of New Mexico – this license would have no validity outside of our state borders,” O’Neill wrote in a guest column submitted to NMPolitics.net that has not yet been published.
“I urge both sides – immigrant rights activists as well as Republican opponents – to be willing to tackle the problem with true compromise in the interest of good public policy for all New Mexicans,” O’Neill wrote.
Sen. Steve Fischmann, D-Las Cruces, has introduced a bill he says would comprehensively address immigration issues, rather than taking on only the license issue.
“As anti-license proponents rail at the opposition for supporting de facto open borders, and pro-license proponents decry their opposition as mean spirited racists, we seem to be headed down the same well-worn path that defines most of our current politics,” Fischmann wrote in a guest column NMPolitics.net published Tuesday. “It leads to a land where everybody hates each other and no meaningful problem is ever solved.”
“We don’t have to go there. Let’s drop the political soap opera and get down to the real work,” Fischmann wrote.
One provision in Fischmann’s bill is similar to O’Neill’s – it would create “driving privilege cards for guest workers that qualify as New Mexico ID only.” Utah is the only state with such a law on the books.
Already, one immigrants-rights group has stated opposition to Fischmann’s bill, saying it allows for discrimination by “institutionalizing differentiated driver’s licenses” and creating “the opportunity for profiling.”
Martinez, with public opinion on her side, wasn’t willing to budge last year. She’s given no indication that this year will be any different.
|
Share
Tweet
|
Advertisements
|
17 comments so far. Scroll down to submit your own comment.
Leave a response
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Governor Martinez rants and rages about fraud because New Mexico provides driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants. So where is the proof of wide spread fraud? Her administration got $701,063 to secure driver’s licenses in New Mexico from the federal government.
In 2011 New Mexico received the $701,063 from the FY 2011 Driver’s Security
Grant Program of FEMA. Funding was provided to “help states improve security
of state-issued driver’s licenses and identification cards in order to reduce fraud
and enhance the reliability and accuracy of personal identification documents.”
So how is the money being used? Governor Martinez argues that giving driver’s
licenses to illegal immigrants leads to fraud. So is she using this money to verify
the fraud and fight it or what? We taxpayers want to know how she is using that
money. State legislators should ask the Governor. Here is information on the
program.
http://www.fema.gov/txt/government/grant/2011/fy11_dlsgp_kit.txt
http://www.fema.gov/government/grant/dlsgp/
https://www.cfda.gov/?s=program&mode=form&tab=step1&id=337bb798cd686669
cfec51f8fcb1fd9f
Actually, Mr./Ms. Leisner, had you actually been reading the comment more closely and without assumptions, you would have known that the suggestion that “liberal” be looked up was addressed directly to Dr. J; however, considering that you spend the rest of your commentary parroting the remarkably unnuanced viewpoints of the average talk-radio host rather than basing your viewpoints on fact, then I find your remarkably-inaccurate assumptions disappointingly unsurprising.
In one statement I’m told to look up the word “liberal” and the next statement we are told the the meaning of the words have been changed. Well under the lefts definition evil has become good, corruption has become legal and etcetera. The lawyers, judges and politicians have bastardize our Constitution to the point that it means whatever the liberals want it to say. Just for example the First Amendment says “freedom of speech” the the judges have changed that to “freedom of expression”, but the “expression” is only for liberals. When a liberal “lies” under oath it becomes “misleading”, for the rest of us it is perjury. No matter what you want to call it a liar is still a liar and all the political spin in the world will not change that fact. The theory that liberalism is a mental disease seems to be a proven fact when you listen to the liberals explain their actions.
“left wing liberals many times use their own definitions for things”
Yes, definitions that come out of a pithy little tome known as the Dictionary; indeed, Dr. J, were you to use one, you might actually begin to understand what we actually believe, rather than what you tell us we believe. I would suggest you start by looking up the word “liberal”, because you’re still not using it correctly.
Mr./Ms. Liesner:
It’s alright that you’re amazed; we’re equally amazed that anyone is capable of distilling complex socioeconomic problems into two-dimensional talking points that fail to address any of the underlying issues.
“I find it amazing that the people of New Mexico continue to elect people to the legislature to enact laws for this state, that do not understand the difference between legal and illegal”
They know, they are counting on voters not to know or care. Last year, Rep Chasey posted an article on this site using numbers based on drivers licenses obtained by all aliens in NM (legal and illegal) as justification for allowing illegals to get them.
To start with if you don’t know (or care) who’s illegal or legal, how can you establish the benefit of the law as applies to illegals? Rep Chasey must have insight that 47 states don’t.
Well said Mr. Leisner and a good point as well. But remember that left wing liberals many times use their own definitions for things, like legal vs. illegal, tax wasting pork vs. job creation, etc.
I find it amazing that the people of New Mexico continue to elect people to the legislature to enact laws for this state, that do not understand the difference between legal and illegal. Could that be the reason that there is so much corruption in our government?
That is a great compromise Author, if they would just print in big, red letters across the top “ILLEGAL ALIEN”, it would pass easily, so what is the problem?
If the lawmakers really wanted to pass a license law in N M that makes sense, Why not have everyone’s license state if they are a illegal resident or, this would not only help law enforcement and Homeland Security, but would also make an illegal legal as far as using our streets and highways.
The way it is now, most entities, including Homeland Security and the airlines do not allow our state licenses to be used as verification of legality.
Bill O’Neill’s HB 171 seems the answer to me. It is straightforward and specific (only two pages long). Also it seems designed to work with the current computer system. Hemingway is absolutely right that the computer system, probably the software, needs to be upgraded! But that is not going to happen, I suspect. Complaining about obsolete technology doesn’t arouse voters, complaining about “alien invaders” gets one lots of votes.
Hey, I have an idea…why don’t we just become the first state in the union that says you don’t need a drivers license to drive on the roads in New Mexico. That way, nobodys rights are infringed upon and no one will be breaking any immigration laws. All the illegal folks trying to become illegally legal will just have to go to another state. This way, the New Mexico State Legislature might actually be able to get something done….oh wait a minute…Michael Sanchez and the rest of the Democrats won’t have anything to hold over the heads of the Republicans…and the Republicans might actually have to come up with some productive ideas to solve the real problems in New Mexico…no way, too simple a solution.
I believe most progressives believe that the issue of illegal imigration is a non issue. Hemingway does a good job promoting that cause. Unfortunately, they are unable to fully grasp the economic impact of illegal immigration. Why have property rights if someone can come in and take your property. Hemingway you seem to promote the rule of man over the rule of law. I know you understand the difference. If an individual had a perscriptive easment to come and take your property without compensation would you like that? Because that is what illegal immigration does. It promotes all sorts of undocumented behivors on both sides of the border. And it is not the illegal population that pays for most of the cost as many would think.
This issue, along with a boatload of others, shows how divided, partisan, and polarized we are as a society, and getting worse without any leadership in the White House.
For voter registration purposes, county Bureaus of Elections have software that can identify an address as business or residential. If ID’d as business, a voter registration application is rejected.
The New Mexico MVD has all kinds of problems. An admitted “computer glitch” caused the state to issue hundreds if not thousands of fraudulent car titles in New Mexico.
http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/on_assignment/mvd-papers-dirty-cars-with-clean-titles
I think Governor Martinez should reform MVD and upgrade its computer systems rather than do an improper propaganda campaign against illegal immigrants and driver’s licenses.
It is funny the Associated Press sees “only” a possible pattern of fraud. The fraud is exaggerated by the Martinez administration. Read the Albuquerque Journal. It is almost like the non-existent voter fraud. What the state needs to do is replace its totally obsolete and aging computer system. The system can not even recognize duplicate addresses. Then duplicate addresses can be investigated and if there is fraud arrest the perpetrators. That is answer – pure and simple!
So it is clear that the state legislators should vote against the repeal of the law granting immigrants driver’s licenses. This is a public safety issue. Instead let’s replace that old computer ASAP.
As the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators stated in its authoritative 2003 report, New Mexico driver’s licenses including that for illegal immigrants with digital images aid homeland security and law enforcement agencies.
http://www.drivers.com/article/971/