ALERT: CALL YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVE AND TO URGE HIM OR HER NOT TO COSPONSOR CHAIRMAN SENSENBRENNER’S BILL.

PLEASE CIRCULATE WIDELY TO YOUR NETWORK

After the intelligence reform bill passed last December without federally mandated immigrant driver’s license restrictions and other anti-immigrant provisions, Chairman Sensenbrenner (R-WI) announced that he would introduce a separate bill with these measures in early January 2005.  The Chairman’s office has subsequently decided to wait and introduce the bill when Congress reconvenes the week of January 25th.  We suspect that the delay is because he would like to get more cosponsors on his bill (he claims to have 102 so far).  

Although we don’t have a copy of the legislation, we believe he will introduce the same House language that was rejected in November, which would have precluded states from providing driver’s licenses to immigrants who cannot prove lawful presence, limited the definition of lawful presence to certain immigration categories, and required state driver’s licenses issued to non-immigrants to expire on or before their visa expiration date.  For a summary of the House driver’s license provisions in the intelligence bill, see http://www.nilc.org/immspbs/DLs/HR10andS2845sidebyside_101404.pdf.  Chairman Sensenbrenner’s bill will also include other controversial measures, one of which would make it more difficult for people to obtain for asylum, another that would relax environmental requirements for a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, and a third that would impose tougher deportation rules. 

Please immediately call the Washington DC office of your Representative in the U.S. House with the following message (See the attached talking points for additional information) – 

¨      I have heard that Chairman Sensenbrenner will introduce an anti-immigrant bill in late January and I want to make sure that Representative [your Representative] does NOT cosponsor this bill.

¨      We need real immigration reform, NOT immigrant driver’s license restrictions that scapegoat immigrants, drive up insurance rates and make us all less safe.

¨      I am counting on Representative [your Representative] to stand up to the anti-immigrant wing in Congress this year.

¨      This issue is very important to immigrants in [your state] and Chairman Sensenbrenner’s bill will put an enormous burden on the state.

Before you hang up, ask for a letter from your Representative explaining his or her position on federal immigrant driver’s license restrictions.  

Prioritization

If your time is limited, please prioritize those who live in districts represented by the Members on the attached Congressional target list. 

¨      We have targeted Republicans who cosponsored Ag Jobs and DREAM.  The message to them should be that you appreciate their support on these bills, and to be consistent on immigration they should not cosponsor Sensenbrenner’s bill.

¨      We have also targeted Democrats who cosponsored the CLEAR Act.  These Democrats are vulnerable to cosponsoring Sensenbrenner’s bill and so we want to pressure them not to.

¨      Lastly, we have identified our allies on immigration.  We want to make sure that they understand that we consider the struggle around immigrant access to driver’s licenses to be a defining issue. 

Contacting Members of Congress

¨      Call the Congressional switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask for your Representative’s office.

¨      For House members contact information see http://www.house.gov/Welcome.shtml.

¨      If you don’t want to call, you can email most Members from their website or fax them a written message.

Thanks for your help!  Please email Tyler at moran@nilc.org if you learn anything about where your Representative stands on this issue.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

Tyler Moran, National Immigration Law Center, moran@nilc.org, 208-333-1424
Joan Friedland, National Immigration Law Center, friedland@nilc-dc.org, 202-216-0261
Michele Waslin, National Council of la Raza, mwaslin@nclr.org, 202-776-1735

Why the Federal Government Should Not Place

Immigration Status Restrictions on Driver’s Licenses

Background

To combat fraud, the 9/11 Commission Report called for federal standards for issuance of identity documents, including driver’s licenses.  Congress implemented that recommendation in December 2004 when it included provisions in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 requiring the Department of Transportation, through a negotiated rulemaking process, to set standards regarding acceptance of identity documents, verifiability of documents, fraud prevention and security standards for the actual license.  Congress should not back away from that law and incautiously make changes that will undermine national security, encourage a black market in fraudulent documents, deny law enforcement an important tool in preventing and investigating terrorism, and deny drivers the ability to learn the rules of the road and obtain car insurance.

General Principles for Driver’s License Standards

1. The driver’s license provisions in the intelligence reform law already follow the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission by improving the security of driver’s licenses and creating measures to prevent against identity theft. The law also establishes an open and deliberative process with input from governmental and nongovernmental stakeholders.

2. National security is enhanced when people have access to lawful documents and are able to identify themselves, and when law enforcement can wisely use scarce resources in investigating and preventing terrorism.

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3. Issuing driver’s licenses is a state matter, and legislation should not undermine the states’ ability to set eligibility criteria for driver’s licenses for their own residents. 

Why the Federal Government Should Not Place Immigration Status Restrictions on Licenses

1. Congress just passed a law carrying out the Commission’s recommendations.

¨      Congress has already addressed state driver’s license vulnerabilities by carrying out the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations and passing the Intelligence Reform Act.  That law includes important measures to protect against identify theft and strengthen the process of verifying source documents. 

¨      The Commission did not recommend that immigrants should be denied a license, and it did not argue that states should be relieved of their traditional role in determining driver’s license eligibility.

¨      The Intelligence Reform Act respects the role of states in determining driver’s license eligibility, doesn’t impose unfunded mandates on the states, and recognizes the need for states and other interested parties to participate in establishing rules that make sense.

¨      Overturning the Intelligence Reform Act within months of its passage in order to add immigration restrictions is reckless.

2. National security will be undermined if the federal government imposes immigration restrictions on state driver’s license issuance.

¨      National security experts make clear that imposing immigration restrictions on the driver’s license process actually undermines national security.[1] 

1.      Immigration restrictions will make it harder to identify the people who really pose a threat because they will prevent otherwise law-abiding people from  participating in internal security systems;

2.      Immigration restrictions will make the work of law enforcement harder because they have to expend resources sorting through people who pose no risk to national security; and

3.      Immigration restrictions will increase the incentive for people to get fraudulent documents.

¨      The best way to help terrorists is to stigmatize and marginalize ordinary immigrants, making law enforcement less available to them.

¨      Restrictions on  immigrants’ licenses clogs courts and diverts scarce law-enforcement resources from saving lives, and preventing terrorism, and prevents the  police from doing their job of protecting the community.

3. Proposing immigrant driver’s license restrictions as a means to fight terrorism is a red herring. 

¨      As stated in a fact sheet created by the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, which is a public education campaign created by the 9/11 Commissioners, immigrant driver’s licenses restrictions would not have prevented the events of September 11, 2001.  All of the hijackers were in the United States lawfully when they obtained their licenses.[2] 

¨      The fraud in obtaining their licenses did not arise from them being undocumented immigrants.  Some of the September 11 hijackers obtained licenses by submitting false affidavits that they were state residents or used hotels as their address. 

¨      In fact, state driver’s license records provided critical information about the hijackers’ whereabouts in the U.S.

¨      Unlike the majority of immigrants who work hard at low-wage jobs, sophisticated terrorists have the resources to travel. They aren’t deterred by lawful presence restrictions, but can use their foreign passports to prove identity for almost any purpose; and have access to technology to produce fake identity documents.

¨      The focus on immigrant driver’s license eligibility since September 11, 2001 has diverted attention from real security lapses that should be addressed.  These include: unfunded state and local homeland security efforts and public health departments, lack of security at ports and other critical infrastructure facilities, Chaos at the Department of Homeland Security, and International intelligence gathering failures.

4. States will lose control over drivers license rules even though they will continue to administer licenses. 

¨      The issuance of driver’s licenses and driver’s rules has always been within the purview of the states. 

¨      That is the way it should be:  the states administer the licenses, are closer to their citizens, and better positioned to balance public safety, service, and other issues.

¨      While Congress should have a role in assisting states in crafting state-led solutions and coordinating efforts to strengthen the security of the driver’s license, federal immigrant restrictions clearly strip power from the states and impose extremely onerous requirements. 

5. Drivers Licenses protect lives – it is important that all drivers are licensed.

¨      Licensed drivers take classes and pass tests.  They are also registered, photographed and insured.

¨      Licensing drivers helps to prevent accidents: An AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety report, Unlicensed to Kill, found that unlicensed drivers are almost five times more likely to be in a fatal crash than are validly licensed drivers.

¨      Unlicensed drivers can’t get insurance and are less likely to stick around after an accident.  An average of 14 percent of all accidents are caused by uninsured drivers. Nationally, uninsured motorists cause over $4.1 billion in insurance losses per year. 

¨      After Utah and New Mexico eliminated lawful presence requirements, state uninsurance rates dropped by one-third. 

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

Joan Friedland, National Immigration Law Center, friedland@nilc-dc.org, 202-216-0261

Tyler Moran, National Immigration Law Center, moran@nilc.org, 208-333-1424

Michele Waslin, National Council of La Raza, mwaslin@nclr.org, 202-776-1735

Congressional Target List for Drivers Licenses

HOUSE

(www.house.gov)

Republican Co-sponsors of Student Adjustment Act (SAA) or Ag Jobs