IMMIGRATION DEBATE TO TURN ON LICENSES, PAPER SAYS
" With this year's session barely over, congressional leaders are already looking ahead to debating an issue that has been a hot potato in a number of states: whether illegal immigrants should be allowed to obtain driver's licenses in the U.S.," the LA Times writes. "The issue is expected to split the new Congress, even with its bigger Republican majority, and could dash hopes for a broader overhaul of immigration policies next year. Some Republicans want to consider new restrictions only if they are part of a broader overhaul of immigration policies, including allowing millions of illegal immigrants to gain work permits for jobs Americans do not want." "Dan Stein, executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a lobbying group that seeks to stop illegal immigration and restrict legal immigration, said denying driver's licenses to illegal immigrants enjoyed broad public support and warned that lawmakers who opposed it risked political peril."
Related: Immigration may lead to intra-party fight (Scripps Howard)