Politician pushes proposed driving bill
Apr. 04, 2004
By Liz Tascio
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
CONCORD - The state senator who is writing a compromise bill that would allow undocumented immigrants to get driver's licenses said Saturday that applicants may have to pay extra money and undergo a background check.
The bill, SB1160, is far from written, but Sen. Gilbert Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, said it will improve the safety of all motorists.
"We will pass this law because it is necessary, it is responsible, and it is just," said Cedillo, who spoke to the mostly Latino crowd in English and Spanish.
About 250 people came from Richmond, Oakley, Pittsburg and other communities to St. Francis of Assisi Church to hear Cedillo, and he urged them to get involved in their local government and make sure their representatives understand the need for SB1160.
The economy of California was built and is maintained with immigrant labor, Cedillo said, and all immigrants -- legal or not -- need to be able to get to their jobs and school legally. But, he said, some are making the driver's license a political issue instead of a safety issue.
"When times are difficult in California, (some people) want to blame immigrants ... who we could not even proceed without," Cedillo said.
Cedillo also authored SB60, a similar, highly controversial bill signed into law last fall by then-Gov. Gray Davis in the heat of the campaign to recall him. That law was repealed after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger took office, but the new governor at the same time promised to help create compromise legislation with tighter security provisions.
SB1160 may allow an immigrant without a social security number to apply for a license using a Taxpayer Identification Number. The bill will probably require proof of car insurance and stricter proof of identity than last year's.
"Unlike SB60, the new bill is going to have ... more stringent requirements, which could entail a higher threshold of identity verification," said Dan Savage, Cedillo's chief of staff.
Cedillo doesn't know when SB1160 will be ready for introduction to the Legislature. In a brief interview before his speech, he said some technology for identity verification is not yet available or is newly available. For instance, the Department of Motor Vehicles only recently computerized a database of thumbprints, he said.
The event at St. Francis was hosted by the Contra Costa Interfaith Supporting Community Organization. The group chartered buses to bring people from Richmond, Oakley and Pittsburg.
Nancy Marquez, 18, attended the meeting with a church youth group. They plan to march in Sacramento on May 5 in support of SB1160.
The teenager moved with her family from Mexico to California when she was 3 years old. Her parents waited more than 10 years to be awarded permanent residency, but they discovered too late that Marquez had been left off the application. She expects to have to wait about six more years before her own residency is approved.
Marquez will graduate from Freedom High School in Oakley this spring and hopes to go to college and study politics or medicine. If Cedillo's bill passes, she can name a few people who would benefit.
"I'd be one of them," she said.
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