Brown expected to sign license measure
California’s move to allow more than a million immigrants to receive driver’s licenses marks a significant advance in the long campaign to decriminalize the day-to-day lives of those in this country illegally.
The plan was the most prominent of several pieces of legislation approved this week aimed at strengthening the rights of immigrants in California. But it also brought new protests from critics who say the state is protecting undocumented workers at the expense of federal immigration laws.
The bill, sent to Gov. Jerry Brown (D) late Thursday, comes after some of California’s top law enforcement officials, including Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck and L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca, expressed strong support for the idea. They argued that immigrants should not fear cooperating with police or feel harassed simply because of their immigration status.
The bill, AB 60, would authorize the Department of Motor Vehicles to issue a driver’s license to people who cannot prove that they are authorized under federal law to be in the country as long as they meet all other qualifications for having a license. Brown is expected to sign the bill, having said in a statement it would “enable millions of people to get to work safely and legally.”
— Los Angeles Times (The Washington Post, 9/15/13)
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