COMMENT, PLEASE READ..THANKS MAC,
What
is left out is that these new drivers are required to carry insurance.
But because they may not be able to afford it, the State of California
(via your tax dollars) offers insurance to the poor and needy at a lower
limit of liabilty then the minimum state limits you and I are required
to carry. The only way to protect yourself is carrying adequate limits
of uninsured and underinsured limits....this gives you the ability to
sue your own insurance company for pain and suffering caused by another
uninsured or underinsured person.
http://www.policeone.com/
Some illegal
immigrants to get drivers licenses in Calif.
Bill signed into law
yesterday will allow issuance of licenses to those eligible for a work
permit
By Don
Thompson
Associated Press
Associated Press
SACRAMENTO,
Calif. — Some illegal immigrants could get California drivers licenses under a
bill that Gov. Jerry Brown announced he signed into law late
Sunday.
AB2189
by Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, will let the Department of Motor
Vehicles issue licenses to illegal immigrants eligible for work permits under a
new Obama administration policy. The bill requires the department to accept as
proof of legal residence whatever document the federal government provides to
participants in its deferred action program.
Cedillo
said his bill will make roads safer while letting young immigrants drive to
school and to work. His reasoning drew support from several Republican
lawmakers, while other Republicans argued the state should leave immigration
issues to the federal government.
"It
is a victory for those who were brought here through no choice of their own,
played by the rules, and are only asking to be included in and contribute to
American society," Cedillo said in a statement.
He
said California is the first state to grant drivers' licenses to the group
singled out under the Obama administration's policy. Cedillo praised Brown for
choosing "public safety over politics" by signing the
bill.
"President
Obama has recognized the unique status of these students, and making them
eligible to apply for driver's licenses is an obvious next step," Brown
spokesman Gil Duran said.
Meanwhile,
Brown vetoed AB1081, which could have protected illegal immigrants from
deportation if they committed minor infractions. The bill has been dubbed
"anti-Arizona" legislation, a reference to that state's immigrant identification
law.
The
so-called Trust Act would have let California opt out of some parts of a federal
program that requires local law enforcement officers to check the fingerprints
of people they arrest against a federal immigration database and hold those who
are in the country illegally.
It
would have barred local law enforcement officers from detaining suspects for
possible deportation unless they are charged with serious or violent
felonies.
Brown
backed comprehensive federal immigration reform, and said in a veto message that
federal agents "shouldn't try to coerce local law enforcement officials into
detaining people who've been picked up for minor offenses and pose no reasonable
threat to their community."
However,
he said the list of serious or violent felonies in the bill is "fatally flawed
because it omits many serious crimes." He said those include child abuse, drug
trafficking, and weapons violations, among others. He promised to work with
lawmakers to fix the bill's wording.
California
law enforcement officials have turned over about 80,000 illegal immigrants for
deportation since 2009, though fewer than half had committed a serious or
violent felony. The majority of those deported by the federal government under
the Secure Communities program have come from California.
Supporters
say the program targets otherwise law-abiding immigrants who commit minor
traffic infractions, sell food without a permit or are arrested on misdemeanors
charges but never convicted. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, said the
program wastes local resources and causes mistrust between immigrants and law
enforcement agencies.
Several
Republican legislators objected that Ammiano's bill would have removed a
valuable tool for ridding California of lawbreakers.