Coalition targets unlicensed immigrant drivers

Friday, Jan. 25, 2002 | 9:49 a.m.

An accident on a snowy road in Reno three years ago started Bert Ramos on a personal drive to make it easier for immigrants to get driver's licenses.

Ramos realized, when his car was hit by an unlicensed, uninsured immigrant driver, that such drivers carry a cost: unsafe roads, higher insurance premiums and less revenue for the state.

Now Ramos, founder of Latinos in Politics, a Republican coalition, hopes state officials will get behind legislation that would allow undocumented immigrants to obtain licenses.

But his idea couldn't come at a worse time, he admits. Since Sept. 11 Congress, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and a national association of motor vehicle departments have been pursuing a series of reforms that would make such a change nearly impossible.

"If you're in this country illegally, you shouldn't be issued a driver's license," Jason King, spokesman for the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, said.

No one knows how many undocumented immigrants there are in Nevada. Estimates range from 60,000 to 125,000 in Clark County alone, two-thirds of whom may be of driving age.

"These folks are out there, and you can't eliminate them," Ramos said.

The association wants to standardize nationally the requirements for obtaining a driver's license. A key part of the reform is to make it harder in all 50 states for illegal immigrants to get one.

"The driver's license has become America's domestic identification of choice, and we want to put into place a minimum set of standards across the nation so we know who has a license, and that people who get licenses are allowed to be in the country," King said.

One of the main documents required to obtain a driver's license in Nevada is a Social Security card -- something undocumented immigrants do not have, unless they've obtained one fraudulently.

Ramos is suggesting applicants be allowed to use a number from the Internal Revenue Service called the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number. The number is given for tax purposes only to those who are ineligible for Social Security cards.

Utah made that change in 1997, after a study showed that one-fourth of all car accidents in the state involved uninsured drivers. Since then 60,000 people a year have used the number to get a license, Barton Blackstock, chief of the Utah Driver Services Bureau, said.

"We had to choose whether it was more important to check for people's legal presence here or to be able to track what is a large population and make sure they're driving safely," Blackstock said.

"We chose the public safety route. It was that or hide your head in the sand."

Utah is one of less than a dozen states nationwide where undocumented immigrants can obtain driver's licenses. A similar measure has passed the California Legislature and is awaiting Gov. Gray Davis' signature.

However, the events of Sept. 11 have given the governor pause, and he is developing a counter-proposal that addresses security, according to a spokesman for California Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, who sponsored the bill.

The administrators' group would just as soon close the door to all illegal immigrants.

"People whose visa expires tomorrow can now get a license in one of these states today and use this license to become a part of society," King said.

Ramos said his proposal would do more to increase homeland security than restricting licenses would.

"It would give us a way of knowing who these people are, instead of having them driving without licenses or committing document fraud in order to get licenses."

Ramos said any legislation should include requiring those wanting driver's licenses to apply for citizenship or residency, the step below citizenship in immigration status.

"The last thing I'm trying to do is encourage illegal immigration," he said.

Ramos' proposal won't go before the Legislature until next year, but he is hoping to persuade the Legislative Counsel Bureau to fund a study before then that would estimate the number of uninsured drivers and undocumented immigrants and their cost to residents.

He also is talking up the idea with state legislators, starting with Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno.

"The bottom line is, people who come to this country to work hard and be productive should be encouraged," Townsend said.

Assemblywoman Vonne Chowning, D-North Las Vegas, who chairs the Assembly's transportation committee, said she sees both the pros and cons of giving licenses to immigrants.

"If we can identify more people and close more loopholes, while making sure there are more insured drivers on our roads, then I think this is something worth pursuing," Chowning said.

"But the problem is that the driver's license is more than just a document that shows you can drive. It's become a defacto ID, and giving this to undocumented immigrants will raise a red flag for a lot of people."