California: Of the 883,000 drivers licenses issued from Jan-July, 443,000 were to undocumented immigrants

California Effort to Issue Driver’s Licenses to Immigrants Receives Surge of Applicants

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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, 40 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.



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.”



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.


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[link to www.nytimes.com]