CA joins growing list of states giving driver’s licenses to immigrants in US illegally
California on Thursday joined the growing list of states that allow immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally to obtain driver’s licenses — a measure supported not only by Latino activists but by police chiefs and insurance authorities.
Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown signed the bill in front of a cheering crowd of immigrants and their supporters, predicting other parts of the country will follow the example set by the nation’s most populous state.
The licenses, which are expected to become available no later than January 2015, will carry a special designation on the front and a notice stating that the document is not official federal identification and cannot be used to prove eligibility for employment or public benefits...
“This is only the first step,” Brown said outside City Hall in Los Angeles. “When a million people without their documents drive legally and with respect in the state of California, the rest of this country will have to stand up and take notice. No longer are undocumented people in the shadows.”
Ten other states have enacted measures to give driver’s licenses to immigrants in the country illegally, many of them in the past year, according to the National Immigration Law Center.
Some of those states issue only one kind of license. But laws in many states, including Oregon and Colorado, create distinctions between the license given to immigrants and the one issued to other drivers.. .
State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said he believes the marker is insignificant in relation to what the license will do for immigrants.
“Those distinctions mean little to hard-working [illegal alien] people who simply want to drive to work or drive their kids to school or soccer practice without fear,” he said.
Brown has enjoyed strong support among Latino voters, whose numbers are growing in California. On the steps of City Hall, scores of immigrant rights activists chanted “champion” in Spanish at the mention of his name.
He urged lawmakers to move forward on more sweeping immigration reform on Capitol Hill, where an overhaul has stalled.
Ismael Salvador, a 63-year-old factory worker from El Salvador, turned out to see the bill-signing. He said the change will radically alter the lives of his two daughters, who are in the country illegally.
One risks driving every morning to her job as a lunch truck cook, and the other cleans houses and relies on rides because she is afraid to get behind the wheel, he said.
CAIRCO Research
Unlawful employment of aliens
USC› Title 8 › Chapter 12 › Subchapter II › Part VIII › § 1324a
8 USC § 1324a - Unlawful employment of aliens
(3) Definition of unauthorized alien
As used in this section, the term “unauthorized alien” means, with respect to the employment of an alien at a particular time, that the alien is not at that time either
(A) an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence, or
(B) authorized to be so employed by this chapter or by the Attorney General.
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