Bad California License Bill Passes Committee

Thursday morning, the California Senate Transportation Committee heard Sen. Gil Cedillo’s revised illegal alien driver license bill, SB 60. One thing that was revised was the name. It is now called The California Real I.D. Act of 2005. Sen. Cedillo, who has authored illegal alien driver license bills in the past, pulled his legislation off the calendar earlier this year when the U.S. Congress was debating the federal Real I.D. Act, HR 10.

Cedillo was the author of a previous illegal alien driver license bill that was signed into law by Gov. Gray Davis. Many credit Davis’ support for licensing illegal aliens with assisting in his eventual, historic recall election in 2003, which simultaneously elected Arnold Schwarzenegger governor.

The revised SB60 repeals a section of California law that requires proof that applicants be legally in the country and strikes another provision that makes it a crime to help an illegal alien get a driver license.

But, the newest challenge of the revised SB60 is that it requires the California Department of Motor Vehicles to issue driver licenses to illegal aliens.

I told the committee that we disagreed with Leg. Council’s opinion that Real I.D. “authorized” a state to issue licenses to illegal aliens. I continued, “The Real I.D. act shouldn’t be viewed as a green light to license illegal aliens. At best you might interpret it as a yellow light, but yellow doesn’t mean ‘go’ it means ‘caution.’” I also told the Senators that terrorists, criminal aliens and other illegal aliens would remain free in the state to obtain and use driver certificates without fear of detection, and these individuals could rent vehicles and housing, open bank accounts, take jobs, and in the case of terrorists, conduct all the other business attendant to planning and carrying out a terrorist attack against the United States even though the document could not be used for a federal identification purpose.

Mark Williams, radio talkshow host from KFBK in Sacramento, www.marktalk.com also spoke in opposition to SB60. He told the senators of the mood of the country. How he has seen support for enforcing immigration laws grow dramatically and how much energy and enthusiasm he saw in Washington, DC in April when he, hundreds of citizen activists and 17 other radio talkshow hosts from around the country traveled to the nation’s capital to broadcast their shows live from Capitol Hill during the Hold Their Feet to the Fire event. Mark also told the committee members that their job was to serve American citizens, and not support illegal immigration with the mentality of an 1830s plantation owner, justifying the illegal act because there was a monetary gain.

Ric Oberlink from CAPS, Californians for Population Stabilization, www.cap-s.org pointed out that if it enacted SB60, the state would be acting like employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens. Ric and I sat side by side in the Capital in 1993, working to pass SB976 which, he reminded the senators, accomplished over a decade ago what the Real ID act intended today; improved security for the state driver license. Ric told them that it would be a mistake to retreat from a secure driver license, which is what SB60 would do.

Sen. Tom McClintock R-Thousand Oaks was the toughest critic of SB60, however. He repeatedly took Sen. Cedillo to task for misleading the committee and misrepresenting the intent and the wording of the federal Real I.D. Act. He also reminded an insurance industry representative who opined that once illegal aliens were licensed that they would then purchase car insurance, that any driver with a valid license from another country could buy car insurance in California.

The bill passed out of committee 8-5. As an urgency bill it will require 2/3 vote in both houses to be sent to the governor. If enacted, because of the 2/3 required for passage, SB60 could not be removed from the books by citizen’s referendum.

SB 60 Vote Count

Ayes--8
Torlakson (Chair)
Cedillo
Ducheny
Lowenthal
Machado
Murray
Simitian
Soto

Noes--5
McClintock (Vice-Chair)
Ashburn
Maldonado
Margett
Runner

Abstain--1
Kehoe

-- Rick Oltman, Western Regional Field Director for FAIR