Gov. Martinez signs state REAL ID bill

Posted March 9, 2016

By Uriel J. Garcia

The Santa Fe New Mexican

Gov. Susana Martinez signed a bill Tuesday to create a driver’s license that complies with the federal Real ID Act and still allows undocumented immigrants to drive legally with authorization cards. The compromise measure ends a five-year political battle between Republican Martinez and legislators, especially Democrats.

Martinez until this year insisted that legislators repeal a 2003 law that allowed people without proof of immigration status to receive a New Mexico driver’s license if they had proof of identity and of residency in the state. Martinez finally yielded this year, and state senators in turn gave her a couple of concessions on the bill.

Martinez claimed victory when she signed the bill at the Albuquerque International Sunport, saying the state had ended the “dangerous practice of giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.” Her choice of an airport to sign the bill was symbolic. She had said New Mexico residents would eventually need passports to board domestic flights because of the law giving undocumented immigrants driver’s licenses.

In fact, the federal government allows states to issue driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants and still meet the requirements of the Real ID Act, a national identification system. New Mexico now is positioned to adhere to the federal law and to allow immigrants to drive.

A news release by Martinez said the bill she signed “requires fingerprints and background checks for illegal immigrants who wish to obtain a driver’s authorization card,” a statement that is partially untrue. The bill allows some 90,000 immigrants who already have a New Mexico driver’s license to receive driving authorization cards without being fingerprinted.

State senators rewrote the bill after it was approved by the House of Representatives to exempt those immigrants with New Mexico licenses from having to undergo fingerprinting and background checks. Then senators, in a compromise with Martinez, added a limited fingerprinting requirement. It only applies to undocumented immigrants who currently don’t have a New Mexico driver’s license.

Martinez did not mention that aspect of the bill. Instead she declared a political victory.

“This bipartisan compromise ends the dangerous practice of giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, which had turned New Mexico into a magnet for fraud from all over the world. It’s a long overdue, common-sense way to make New Mexico safer, and I’m proud to sign it into law today,” she said.

Just before Martinez signed the bill, her administration sent out a news release saying the Motor Vehicle Division had caught four Mexican nationals who live in Texas trying to fraudulently obtain New Mexico driver’s licenses. The Motor Vehicle Division did not identify the four people it accused of fraud.

Somos Un Pueblo Unido, a Santa Fe-based immigrant advocacy group, also claimed victory in the long fight over driver’s licenses. The group pointed out that Martinez for years had said she would accept nothing except a new law that would prohibit undocumented immigrants from driving. This bill keeps them on the road with the state’s authorization.

“The governor will continue to try to spin her loss, but the reality is that New Mexico rejected her dangerous plan to put tens of thousands of unlicensed drivers on New Mexico’s roads,” Somos Un Pueblo Unido said in a statement of its own.

The organization said that, had Martinez succeeded in repealing the licenses of immigrants, most would have continued to drive. Somos says immigrants are crucial to the state’s farm, dairy, oil and building industries.

During this year’s rancorous legislative session, members of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives swiftly approved a license bill that Martinez wanted. It would have given driving privilege cards to undocumented immigrants who had been in New Mexico for at least two years, but all of them would have had to undergo fingerprinting and background checks. Democrats in the Senate said Martinez’s favored measure would have turned the Motor Vehicle Division into an arm of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Republican and Democratic senators recast the bill, eliminating most of the fingerprinting provision. Then senators approved it 41-1. After that, House members accepted the changes.

“All of the hard work we have put into this has finally paid off,” said Rep. Paul Pacheco, R-Albuquerque, primary sponsor of the House version.

Democrats in the House said “a true compromise” was achieved, in part because of their efforts.

“This bill has had a long path, and we are glad to see that the common-sense changes that House Democrats fought for are going to be included in the final version,” said House Minority Leader Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe. “We’ve gone from a politically charged attempt to take away licenses from immigrants and force citizens to get a Real ID license to a solution that makes sense for New Mexicans.”

The law will create a Real ID-compliant license, which only U.S. citizens and legal immigrants can obtain. Those seeking the federally approved license will have to present a passport or birth certificate and a Social Security card at a Motor Vehicle Division field office.

But U.S. citizens will have the option of obtaining the driving authorization card that comes without having to present all those documents. The driving card also is what undocumented immigrants will receive. The card will enable them to drive lawfully, but could not be used for federal purposes such as boarding an airplane.

Sen. John Arthur Smith,D-Deming, who cosponsored the compromise bill, said people who qualify for a Real ID license may not want to turn over a birth certificate, a passport or other documents to the federal government. For them, the option of obtaining a driving authorization card solves that problem.The new law also has a component that many senior citizens will like. Smith added an amendment raising the age for in-person driver’s license renewal from 75 to 79. Smith, who is 74, had tried previously to increase the age for yearly license renewals through a separate bill, but it stalled in the Senate.

The second-tier card could have been called a driver’s license. There’s no difference between calling it a license or an “authorization card” — which is what New Mexico will be calling them. But Martinez apparently wants to call it the latter so she can say she kept a campaign promise.

“For five long years, we’ve fought hard to do what the people of New Mexico have overwhelmingly demanded,” Martinez said in a news release. “This bipartisan compromise ends the dangerous practice of giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, which had turned New Mexico into a magnet for fraud from all over the world.”

The reality: New Mexico will continue giving immigrants living here without legal status a way to drive legally. And though the law requires people who don’t prove citizenship or legal status to be fingerprinted to get a driving authorization card, it exempts the tens of thousands of immigrants who already have New Mexico driver’s licenses.

So the truth is that, in this bipartisan compromise, Martinez gave lots more ground than Democrats. Martinez fought for years to take legal driving privileges away from all immigrants living in the state without legal status. The bill she signed Tuesday ensures that such immigrants will continue to be allowed to drive legally.

Semantics aside, Martinez said the compromise was “a long overdue, commonsense way to make New Mexico safer.”

“I’m proud to sign it into law today,” she said.

Martinez’s signature was expected. The compromise legislation sailed through the session that ended last month with her support. And Martinez had already travelled to Washington, D.C. to successfully secure an extension of time for New Mexico to comply with the security standards required by the REAL ID Act.

That means New Mexico driver’s licenses are once again valid forms of identification to get onto military bases and into other federal installations. Next up, the state’s Motor Vehicle Division has to implement the requirements in the bill Martinez signed today.

Officials from across the political spectrum praised the compromise after Martinez signed the legislation.

“We’ve gone from a politically charged attempt to take away licenses from immigrants and force citizens to get a REAL ID to a solution that makes sense for New Mexicans,” said House Minority Leader Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe.

Rep. Patricia Lundstrom, D-Gallup, praised the legislation for allowing Native Americans to use tribal documents to obtain a REAL ID-compliant license.

“This is a victory for all of New Mexico. We can now put this issue behind us and start focusing on our economy and creating jobs,” she said.

Two Republican House members also called it a victory.

“All of the hard work we have put into this has finally paid off,” said Rep. Paul Pacheco, R-Albuquerque, who worked on this year’s compromise.

“I have worked on this issue for years. I’m proud of this compromise,” said Rep. Andy Nuñez, R-Hatch.

Both Pacheco and Nuñez repeated on Tuesday the same spin-filled line as Martinez about the compromise taking licenses away from immigrants without legal status — which, again, it doesn’t actually do.

One activist group, Somos Un Pueblo Unido, wasn’t ready to give Martinez any credit for the compromise.

“We are proud that both Republican and Democratic leaders in the state Senate stood up to Governor Martinez’s long campaign to divide New Mexicans on this issue,” the group said. “It is because of their willingness to put families and public safety before politics that thousands of New Mexicans will not be forced to obtain a federal ID and that undocumented immigrant drivers will continue to have access to a non-REAL ID license.”

“The governor will continue to try to spin her loss,” Somos said, “but the reality is that New Mexico rejected her dangerous plan to put tens of thousands of unlicensed drivers on New Mexico’s roads.”

Other groups that worked on the legislation sounded relieved to put the battle to rest.

“We are pleased that undocumented immigrants living in New Mexico will continue to be able to obtain licenses so that they may drive to work, school and health-care facilities and go about their daily lives,” said Suki Halevi, New Mexico regional director for the Anti-Defamation League.

“We are pleased our Legislature finally pushed the governor to accept a compromise that not only respects the choice of New Mexicans to obtain a federal ID but, most importantly, maintains the dignity and safety of our vibrant and hardworking immigrant community,” said Amber Royster, executive director for Equality New Mexico.

The American Civil Liberty Union’s director of public policy in New Mexico, Steven Robert Allen, pointed out that the organization opposes REAL ID “as a classic example of government overreach.” He praised the New Mexico law for letting New Mexicans choose to opt out and obtain a driving authorization card instead.

“Many New Mexicans are rightly concerned about REAL ID and other national ID schemes, and we are pleased that people in New Mexico have a choice of whether to participate or not,” Allen said.

Gov. signs Real ID measure into law

By Maggie Shepard And Deborah Baker / Journal Staff Writers

Published: Tuesday, March 8th, 2016 at 1:59pm
Updated: Tuesday, March 8th, 2016 at 9:57pm

Gov. Susana Martinez has signed into law a measure that puts New Mexico driver’s licenses in line with the stricter requirements of the federal Real ID Act and ends the fractious, five-year debate over whether undocumented immigrants should legally drive.

Martinez signed House Bill 99 on Tuesday at a news conference at the Albuquerque International Sunport.

“This has never been an immigration bill – it’s always been a public safety bill,” the governor said. “What we want to do is not be a magnet for crime.”

Martinez has insisted since she was first elected in 2010 that the state law allowing undocumented immigrants to get driver’s licenses led to fraudulent activity.

She tried to get legislators to undo the law, initially asking for licenses already held by undocumented immigrants to be revoked, and later asking that the issuance of those licenses be halted.

This year, she supported a bipartisan compromise under which undocumented immigrants – along with any citizens who want them – will be able to get driving authorization cards.

The plan also provides Real ID-compliant licenses for citizens and others with lawful presence who want them and can provide the required documentation, including certified copies of birth certificates and documents with Social Security numbers.

Martinez pointed to the arrest of four Mexican nationals for allegedly using false residency documents to try to get driver’s licenses as evidence of the need for “secure ID.”

She said the new law is about “stopping the bad guys” and “stopping the dangerous practice of giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.”

Immigrants’ rights advocates – who support the new law – said it was Martinez’s initial proposals “to put tens of thousands of unlicensed drivers on New Mexico’s roads” that was dangerous.

Somos Un Pueblo Unido also said the driving authorization cards are effectively non-Real ID-compliant licenses, and noted that only first-time applicants – not current license-holders – would have to be fingerprinted to get them.

And the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico said it was pleased that under the new law, New Mexicans can “opt out of Real ID while still retaining driving privileges.”

Now the state must submit a plan to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that outlines how the new driver’s license system will be implemented.

In the meantime, because of the new law, the state has received an extension for compliance with Real ID. That means current state driver’s licenses are once again acceptable as ID at secure federal installations.

The federal government began clamping down in January on the use of New Mexico licenses as valid ID for getting into some military bases and facilities.

The Martinez administration’s plan is to issue the new Real ID licenses and the driving authorization cards once drivers’ current licenses expire.

Taxation and Revenue Secretary Demesia Padilla said her department has no firm date when the licenses will start to be issued but hopes it is in the “very near future.”

Today is the deadline for the governor to sign or veto bills passed in the 30-day session that ended Feb. 18.

On Tuesday, she also signed:

• Senate Bill 147: Making the Spaceport Authority eligible for a governmental liquor license. The Spaceport Authority wants to diversify its revenue sources by expanding the non-aerospace special events – conferences, concerts, and receptions, for example – held at the spaceport.
• Senate Bill 193 – Allowing the consumption of alcoholic beverages in controlled access areas on the grounds of ski areas. Currently, ski areas can have liquor licenses that allow alcohol to be served in lodges or other buildings.
• Senate Bill 163 – Allowing liquor sellers with package rights – selling by the bottle for off-premise consumption – to fill and sell reusable growlers of beer and hard cider.
• Senate Bill 189 – Authorizing the New Mexico Finance Authority to issue $5 million in cigarette tax revenue bonds for Department of Health facilities, including completing the Meadows, a long-term care facility in Las Vegas.
• Senate Bill 110 – Allowing the New Mexico Forestry Division to be reimbursed by the federal government for forest thinning and other conservation work.
• Senate Bill 128 – Making New Mexico a member of the Interstate Compact for the Prevention and Control of Forest Fires.

Session wraps up with smaller budget, party-line split on priorities

Posted: Thursday, February 18, 2016 11:00 pm | Updated: 11:00 pm, Thu Feb 18, 2016.

By Milan Simonich, Steve Terrell and Justin Horwath The New Mexican

NM Legislature cuts budget, forges compromises

SANTA FE – The New Mexico Legislature wrapped up its work Thursday with major political compromises in place to revise driver’s licenses for immigrants, overhaul the state’s bail bond system and trim spending next year to offset plunging state revenue linked to oil income.

Lawmakers approved a $6.2 billion budget deal in the final stretch that shaves overall spending but shifts more money to Medicaid, state prisons, police, teachers and child protective services.

Those are nearly the same priorities favored by Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, making major line-item vetoes unlikely. Lawmakers avoided tax increases by scouring agency accounts for $88 million in one-time funding.

Martinez praised cooperation among Republican allies and Democrats that control the state Senate on reaching a compromise that will allow New Mexico to bring driver’s licenses into compliance with federal REAL ID Act requirements.

“It’s been a hard, five-year fight but I’m proud that we came together, ensured that New Mexicans have a secure ID and that our citizens will not have to buy a passport,” Martinez said.

Under the plan, immigrants in the country illegally must submit fingerprints to the FBI before getting new driving authorization cards, though immigrants that already have licenses can skip the requirement.

Martinez said she would seek a waiver from the U.S. Homeland Security Department that allows access to federal facilities for state license holders while revisions are made. Sandia Labs, White Sands Missile Range and Fort Bliss have announced they would stop accepting New Mexico IDs.

New Mexico Legislature OKs Two-Tiered Driver’s License Plan

Feb. 18 First News: Spending Plan In Place As Legislative Session Ends Thursday

The New Mexico Legislature is approaching the finish line of a 30-day session with major political compromises in place to revise driver’s licenses for immigrants, overhaul the state’s bail bond system and trim spending next year to offset plunging state revenues linked to oil revenues. The legislative session comes to a close by law at noon today. Governor Susana Martinez has embraced a plan that will bring New Mexico driver’s licenses into compliance with federal REAL ID requirements. Various criminal justice measures await her signature, while bail reforms are headed to the November ballot.

Listen to full report here.

Compromise Ends New Mexico’s Yearslong Battle on Immigrant Licenses

The deal between the governor and lawmakers makes the state’s driver’s licenses compliant with federal law and more secure but also lets unauthorized immigrants drive legally.

New Mexico governor gets long-sought driver’s license reform

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez finally got lawmakers to pass her long-sought revision of a state law that grants driver’s licenses to immigrants in the country illegally.
But it came at a cost.
Since taking office, the Republican and nation’s only Latina governor faced charges of racism and pushing an “anti-immigrant agenda.” Critics called her a bad Catholic and questioned her administration’s effort to seek more extensions from the U.S. Department of Homeland on tougher federal REAL ID mandates.
Martinez says she wanted to change law because of fraud, not immigration.

Driver’s license deal heads to governor

Marcela Diaz, executive director of Somos Un Pueblo Unido, and others celebrate after amendments to HB 99 were approved by the House Monday. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)

Feb. 16 First News: New Mexico’s Struggle On REAL ID Law And Immigrant Licenses Now Over-Listen

By Tom Trowbridge • 2/16/2016

KSFR

Driver’s license compromise finally heads to governor’s desk

Posted: Monday, February 15, 2016 10:00 pm | Updated: 10:22 pm, Mon Feb 15, 2016.

By Uriel J. Garcia
The New Mexican

Legislature sends Gov. Martinez the Real ID bill

SANTA FE — The Legislature has sent Gov. Susana Martinez a plan to put New Mexico in line with the federal Real ID Act, clearing the way for the state’s driver licenses to be acceptable identification at secure federal facilities and airports.The compromise legislation was one of the biggest challenges of the 30-day session, which ends Thursday.

House Bill 99 also resolves the five-year fight over whether to stop issuing driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants.It creates a driving authorization card, not compliant with Real ID, that is available to undocumented immigrants as well as to citizens and others with lawful presence who want it.

The legislation went to the governor Monday when the House voted 65-1 to go along with significant changes the Senate made to it.The original version of House Bill 99, as approved by the House, required New Mexicans here legally to get Real ID licenses.

And only undocumented immigrants would have gotten driving cards.Martinez, who has said she supports the compromise bill, has until March 9 to sign it.

The Taxation and Revenue Department plans to ask the federal Department of Homeland Security to immediately give New Mexico another extension for Real ID compliance, which would allow current driver’s licenses to be used again to access secure federal facilities such as military bases.

Governor, immigrants declare victory in driver’s license compromise

Posted: Friday, February 12, 2016 9:15 pm | Updated: 11:30 pm, Fri Feb 12, 2016.

By Uriel J. Garcia
The New Mexican

Senate panel OKs revamped New Mexico REAL ID bill with fingerprints

KKOB-TV

Feb. 12, 2016, 10 p.m.

View video here or at link below.

http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S4046890.shtml?cat=500#.Vr9ncVJrLlI

Senate Finance Committee approves bipartisan REAL ID bill

SANTA FE – A compromise bill bringing New Mexico driver’s licenses into compliance with the federal Real ID law passed a Senate committee on Friday and headed to the Senate floor for a vote.

Gov. Susana Martinez praised it as a “hard-fought compromise” and said she supported the legislation.

Its approval by the Senate and the House would end years of wrangling over driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants and pave the way for eligible New Mexicans to get Real ID-compliant licenses good for accessing secure federal installations and boarding commercial aircraft.

The Senate Finance Committee reinstated a limited fingerprint requirement for undocumented immigrants into House Bill 99 and approved it unanimously.

House Bill 99 would create a Real ID-compliant driver’s license, available to citizens and others legally in the U.S.

It also would provide a driving authorization card for undocumented immigrants and for anyone here legally who wants it.

Martinez praised the bill because it “stops giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.” She has tried since she took office in 2011 to get the Legislature to repeal a 2003 law that allows that.

Immigrants’ rights advocates, however, said Martinez “has lost her six-year war against immigrant families.”

“Immigrants will continue to drive legally in our state long after she is out of office,” said a statement issued by Somos Un Pueblo Unido, a statewide advocacy group.

The bill would require fingerprinting only for undocumented immigrants who don’t already have a New Mexico driver’s license, and only the first time they applied.

The committee scrambled to add an amendment – to meet the administration’s concerns – that would have the Department of Public Safety submit those fingerprints to the FBI for criminal background checks.

That could reveal, for example, whether an applicant had outstanding criminal warrants or was using an alias.

The legislation does not require state officials to match fingerprints to databases and report information about civil or criminal warrants to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as the bill did when it passed the House.

Marcela Diaz, executive director of Somos Un Pueblo Unido, said that although fingerprinting of future applicants is “unnecessary and discriminatory,” at least that information can’t be used “to aid in the deportation of our families.”

The House-passed bill supported by Martinez would have provided driving cards only to undocumented immigrants and required citizens and others here legally to get Real ID-compliant licenses. The plan for driving cards was criticized as a “scarlet letter” provision.

Senate committees changed the bill to allow citizens and other legal residents the option of getting either the Real ID license or the card.

Under House Bill 99 as it was amended and approved by the Senate Finance Committee, driving privilege cards for undocumented immigrants would initially be good for two years, then for four years when they were renewed.

Licenses would be good for either four years or eight years.

Licenses and cards would be distinguishable in color or design, and the driving authorization card would be marked “NOT FOR FEDERAL PURPOSES,” as required by the Real ID law.

“This is probably the best compromise we can come up with at this point in time for the state Senate,” Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, told the committee.

He, other legislative leaders and administration officials have been meeting behind closed doors over the past few days to try to reach an agreement.

Martinez said in a statement, “We have worked for five years to do the work that New Mexicans have asked us to do, and tonight we are one step closer to ending the dangerous law that gives driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.”

She said the bill “provides a secure ID, and includes security measures that New Mexicans expect and deserve” and urged lawmakers to support it in its current form.

Finish line in sight: REAL ID compromise passes committee

By Matthew Reichbach | 

Feb. 12, 2016, 10 p.m.

A long-running debate over a controversial issue looks like it is near an end.

The Senate Finance Committee on Friday night unanimously passed legislation related to driver’s licenses for immigrants who are in the country illegally. The legislation would put New Mexico in line with the federal REAL ID Act while allowing those who are in the country illegally to continue to drive legally.

Gov. Susana Martinez indicated that she would support the legislation, if it passes in the current form.

Martinez’s office did not provide a statement to NM Political Report, as they did to other media outlets and later put on Twitter.

“I support this bill in its current form, and call on lawmakers in both chambers to do what the people have asked us,” Martinez said. “Let’s pass this bill—as is.”

Marcela Diaz, executive director of the immigrant rights group Somos Un Pueblo Unido, declared victory, despite a series of critical tweets from their official Twitter account.

“We believe strongly that the governor has lost her six year war against immigrant families,” Diaz said. “Immigrant families will continue to drive legally long after this governor is out of office.”

She said that Gov. Susana Martinez originally wanted to make it so no one in the country illegally could drive, but that this version will allow “the 90,000 families” to continue to drive.

FBI background check amendment

The big sticking point between the Senate version and the House version was a provision that would require fingerprints from those who cannot prove they are in the country legally. Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, and Senate Minority Leader Stuart Ingle, R-Portales agreed to add this provision to their legislation.

The fingerprinting provision would only apply to those in the country without lawful status who did not already have a driver’s license or identification card. Those who have licenses already would be grandfathered in..

Much of the discussion focused on if the state should use the fingerprints to check against the FBI database for a background check. After much discussion—and a short recess—the committee approved an amendment that would allow the state to use the FBI database.

Sen. Steven Neville, R-Aztec, brought the amendment.

“Mr. Chairman, we love the amendment,” Rep. Paul Pacheco, R-Albuquerque, said of Neville’s amendment. This is something he has not been able to say since the bill crossed over to the Senate side after the legislation passed the House.

Pacheco was the original sponsor, though Smith and Ingle took over the legislation with an extensive amendment in the Senate Public Affairs Committee.

Pacheco still expressed caution when he spoke to reporters afterward and said that things could still happen while on the Senate floor.

“The enabling language really makes a huge difference,” he told reporters, referring to the amendment. “Actually, we’ve been fighting for that all along.”

He said the fingerprints would only be sent to the FBI and not any other agency, specifically mentioning immigration.

The fingerprints would be taken by the Motor Vehicle Department and sent to the Department of Public Safety.

“We’re about as close as close can be,” Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, said as walking by reporters ahead of the bill’s passage.

REAL ID compliance

Smith said that their legislation fulfilled the main purpose, which had nothing to do with fingerprints.

“It’s our understanding that it will make us REAL ID compliant,” Smith said.

REAL ID became a major talking point in recent months after the federal government did not give the state a waiver to comply with its regulations. That means New Mexico licenses were not valid for entrance to federal facilities and, in a few years, would not be valid for identification for domestic air travel.

If this becomes law, New Mexico would be granted a waiver by the Department of Homeland Security.

Those who are in the country legally but do not wish to have a REAL ID-compliant card would only need to provide proof that they are in the country legally—they would not need to provide fingerprints.

The House version did not give those in the country legally an option between a REAL ID or non-REAL ID compliant card; they all would have the bill that complies with the federal law.

Sen. Nancy Rodriguez, D-Santa Fe, said that it was a very difficult discussion to require fingerprints for those who can’t prove they are in the country legally.

She said it was sending a signal that “we’re closing the borders, we’re closing the doors.”

Before the amendment

Pacheco objected to the original version brought forth by Smith and Ingle, before the FBI fingerprint amendment was added by Neville.

“We had a piece of legislation, an amendment that we had seen and we thought we all had agreed on,” Pacheco said. “But this certainly is not the piece.”

“I kind of feel like I was misled,” he added.

Taxation and Revenue Department Secretary Demesia Padilla was even more harsh when speaking about the portion that said it would not be shared with the FBI.

“It does absolutely nothing,” Padilla said. “It is worthless. It is meaningless words on a piece of paper.”

Their concerns were assuaged by the amendment brought by Neville, and they supported the version that passed.

The bill now heads to the Senate. If it were to clear the Senate, it would then go to the House for concurrence. After that, it would go to Martinez’s desk to either sign or veto.

Legislative roundup, Feb. 12, 2016

Posted: Thursday, February 11, 2016 8:15 pm | Updated: 1:33 am, Fri Feb 12, 2016.

The New Mexican

No to fingerprints: Numerous groups, including the New Mexico Hispanic Bar Association, said Thursday they oppose requiring fingerprinting of undocumented immigrants who receive state driver’s licenses or driver’s authorization cards.

House Republicans and Gov. Susana Martinez favor fingerprinting of immigrants seeking driving privileges. Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have stripped the fingerprinting provision out of a House bill. The New Mexico Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Santa Fe Safe said the Senate rewrite of the bill is better for public safety.

They say facial imaging on driver’s licenses already provides states with a good security system against fraud. Fingerprinting, they say, would be an expensive and punitive measure that would discourage immigrants from obtaining a driver’s authorization card or license. The advocacy groups say licenses are “an essential tool” for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault in seeking help and safety.

Immigrant licenses at lowest level since 2003

GOP senators have capital idea on driver’s licenses

Real ID bill hits a snag over fingerprinting issue

By Deborah Baker / Journal Staff Writer
Thursday, February 4th, 2016 at 12:05am

SANTA FE – Does the fate of Real ID compliance for New Mexico rest on a dispute over fingerprinting?

It sounded that way Wednesday, as House Republicans described it as a deal-breaker.

But with the 30-day legislative session just halfway over, there are likely more twists and turns in store.

When a Senate committee on Tuesday retooled a House bill creating Real ID compliant driver’s licenses, it removed a provision requiring undocumented immigrants who apply for driving authorization cards to be fingerprinted.

House Republican leaders complained Wednesday that Senate Democratic leaders had reneged on a commitment by doing that.

Asked at a news conference if not having fingerprinting in the bill was a deal-breaker, House Majority Leader Nate Gentry, R-Albuquerque, said, “Yes.”

Senate leaders said there never had been a commitment and that Republican Gov. Susana Martinez “keeps moving the goal posts” in the pursuit of an agreement on making New Mexico driver’s licenses Real ID-compliant.

Democrats on the Senate Public Affairs Committee said the fingerprinting requirement was unnecessary, undignified and punitive before they stripped it out at a Tuesday meeting.

House Bill 99, before it was revamped, required the fingerprints of undocumented applicants for a driving card to be forwarded to the FBI.

The Department of Public Safety was mandated to check the fingerprints against state and regional criminal databases. The federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency would be notified of any criminal history or warrant record, under the House-passed legislation.

Critics objected that the provisions would create a pipeline for deportation.

But Gentry said Wednesday at a news conference that it is “critically important to our (Republican) caucus that we do have some security measures in whatever bill we send up to the governor.”

She has threatened to veto any bill that lacks sufficient security provisions.

Gentry pointed to a Jan. 7 letter to GOP House Speaker Don Tripp signed by Democratic leaders in the Senate and House in which they listed “useful suggestions … that we are ready to support” in an effort to compromise on Real ID. The list included fingerprinting.

Gentry singled out Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, claiming he reneged on a commitment.

Senate Democratic leaders denied there ever was a commitment. The letter was an effort to enlist Tripp’s support in persuading the Department of Homeland Security to hold off on cracking down on New Mexico licenses. Tripp never responded to the letter, and there was no agreement on the issue, they said.

Jim Farrell, a spokesman for Sanchez, also said at the time the Democrats wrote the letter, they hadn’t seen “how punitive this bill was on the issue of fingerprinting.”

Senate leaders pointed out that of the 10 other states that give licenses or driving cards to undocumented immigrants, only one requires fingerprinting.

“What’s the public policy behind taking fingerprints?” asked Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto, D-Albuquerque.

But he and other Democratic leaders also said they were open to talking more with House Republicans about it. The bill, which cleared the Public Affairs Committee on a bipartisan, 8-1 vote, still has two more committee stops before it would reach the full Senate.

“Our door’s open on the Senate side. We’re receptive to discussion,” said Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming.

SANTA FE – The Senate Public Affairs Committee Tuesday evening put its own stamp on a House-passed driver’s license bill and passed it, over the objections of some Republicans who said the legislation had been hijacked.

The altered House Bill 99 is headed to two more committees before it would reach the full Senate for a vote. The Senate Judiciary Committee is next.

The committee basically put the provisions of Senate Bill 256 – sponsored by Republican Leader Stuart Ingle of Portales and Democratic Sen. John Arthur Smith of Deming – into HB 99, with a few changes.

The altered legislation creates a two-tier system: driver’s licenses that are Real ID-compliant, and a second-tier driving card that is not.

Unlike the original HB 99, it would allow citizens and others who are here legally to opt into the Real ID-compliant license or the noncompliant driver’s card.

The original HB 99 would have required those here legally to get Real ID-compliant licenses, and restricted the driving cards to undocumented immigrants.

Under the revamped HB 99, the second-tier card is called a driving authorization card. The original HB 99 called it a driving privilege card.

The bill as it passed would issue driving authorization cards for four years to those here legally, and two years to those who are undocumented.

From left, Rep. Andy Nunez, R-Hatch, Taxation and Revenue Secretary Demesia Padilla and Rep. Paul Pacheco, R-Albuquerqge, argue against changes to HB 99 during the Senate Public Affairs committee meeting at the Roundhouse, Tuesday February 2, 2016. The committee was debating 5 different Real Id bills including Rep. Pacheco and Nunez\’s. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)

Public Affairs Committee Chairman Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, said the amended bill “achieves essentially what 99 did, in less punitive language.”

The Democratic-dominated committee amended HB 99 on a 5-4 vote, over the objections of its Republican members, who said they hadn’t had enough time to review the amendments. The final vote, passage of the amended bill, was 8-1.

Rep. Paul Pacheco, R-Albuquerque, who sponsored HB 99, objected to the committee’s action, saying he wanted to stick to the bill as it passed the House.

“The best way to move this forward is to pass House Bill 99 as it is,” he said.

“We have been here two weeks. … The citizens of New Mexico are ready for us to act,” Ingle said.

He said it didn’t make sense to wait until the last minute to approve legislation. The session ends Feb. 18.

Gov. Susana Martinez said the amended HB 99 “unacceptably retreats” on some security issues.

A spokesman for Martinez said any bill the Legislature passes must end the issuance of driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants and contain “common-sense security provisions and standards … or it will be vetoed.”

Martinez objects that the amended HB 99 does not require fingerprinting of undocumented immigrants applying for driving privilege cards, as the House-passed House Bill 99 does.

Taxation and Revenue Secretary Demesia Padilla told the committee fingerprinting would be “used as a deterrent. … It keeps the bad folks away.”

She also acknowledged under committee questioning that of 10 other states or jurisdictions that allow undocumented immigrants to get some sort of driving privilege, only Utah has been requiring fingerprinting.

Senate critics suggested it was discriminatory.

“If we required fingerprinting on everybody else, it would be different,” said Sen. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque.

Martinez spokesman Michael Lonergan said that although the revised HB99 “stops giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, it unacceptably retreats on provisions already agreed to by Senate leaders – like requiring fingerprints before driver permits are provided to illegal immigrants. It also has several provisions in it that actually make it easier to commit fraud.”

The reference to an unacceptable retreat on fingerprinting refers to a Jan. 7 letter from Senate and House Democratic leaders in which they said they were ready to support fingerprinting.

The original HB 99 required citizens and anyone else with lawful presence to get Real ID-compliant licenses. Only undocumented immigrants could carry driving privilege cards, which critics say amounts to a “scarlet letter” that could subject undocumented immigrants to discrimination and harassment.

Former Santa Fe Mayor David Coss speaks in favor of a bill by Sen. Stuart Ingle, R-Portales, and Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, during the Senate Public Affairs committee meeting at the Roundhouse, Tuesday February 2, 2016. The committee was debating 5 different Real Id bills including Sen. Ingles and Smith\’s. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)

Martinez’s spokesman said she supports the original House Bill 99, which “ensures New Mexico has a secure ID, stops giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, wouldn’t create confusion at federal installations or airports, and provides adequate security provisions.”

Republicans on Senate panel join Dems in passing stripped-down House Real ID measure

Posted: Tuesday, February 2, 2016 10:15 pm | Updated: 10:35 pm, Tue Feb 2, 2016.

Feb. 2, 2016
KOB 10 p.m. news

Watch KOB video here or below at:

http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S4035923.shtml?cat=500#.VrJLu0A0PNX

Monday, February 1st, 2016 at 11:49pm

Study: Axing driver’s license law would cost state money, jobs

By Joey Peters |
NM Political report
Feb. 2, 2016

A study released Monday offers a new take on a now-old debate in the New Mexico legislature—driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants.

The survey, published by the Center for Health Policy at the University of New Mexico, finds that removing the state’s driver’s license law would cost the state jobs and money. More specifically, the study estimates that the state would lose $38.5 million each year, along with drops of 3 percentage points in labor participation and 1 percentage point in employment.

The study examined a proposal pushed by House Republicans and Gov. Susana Martinez over the past few years, though they are looking at a different proposal this year.

“We’re looking at 1,400 jobs that are going to be vacant,”  co-author Joaquin Alfredo-Angel Rubalcaba told NM Political Report.

The study comes as New Mexico had the highest unemployment rate in the nation for the second-straight month.

The figures, which were derived using what Rubalcaba referred to as a “residual method” extracting from the U.S. Census Bureau’s yearly American Community Survey, only accounts for undocumented men. Rubalcaba said he doesn’t have empirical data to back up why that is, but he speculates it’s because most undocumented men work in industries like construction that require driving.

Because the federal Census statistics don’t identify undocumented people, Rubalcaba said trying to figure out exact figures of how many live and work in the U.S. can be tricky.

“Even the Pew [Research Center] and the Department of Homeland Security use a residual method to figure out undocumented numbers,” he said.

He and co-author Melina Juárez method is similar to how the Migration Policy Institute and the Kaiser Foundation calculate undocumented numbers.

The authors came with their employment and dollar figures through analyzing the impact of repeal of similar measures in Hawaii, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Oregon and Tennessee. The study looked at what happened as each of these states complied with the federal Real ID Act but before the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) became effective. After an executive order by President Barack Obama, DACA allows undocumented immigrants approved under its provisions to apply for driver’s licenses.

The study looks at the time period from 2006 through 2010.

Rubalcaba said he and Juárez calculated potential dollar figures lost through repeal of the law by calculating the average income of undocumented male immigrants.

They then coupled all of this with 2015 New Mexico population data to come up with the study’s conclusions.

Gov. Susana Martinez and legislative Republicans made full-out repeal of the driver’s license law one of their top priorities for the last five years. This year they are pushing for a policy that would repeal the law but still allow some immigrants who are in the country illegally to obtain driver’s licenses.

Under the bill sponsored by Rep. Paul Pacheco, R-Albuquerque, undocumented immigrants who under fingerprinting by the state Department of Public Safety and can prove they’ve lived in the state for two years are eligible for one-year, renewable driver’s privilege cards that wouldn’t qualify as IDs. Opponents call the bill discriminatory and are proposing a less restrictive two-tier licensure system that would offer both driver’s licenses that meet Real ID and driver’s privilege cards that don’t work as IDs that undocumented immigrants are eligible for.

Rubalcaba and Juárez’s study doesn’t look at potential impacts of a two-tier system, though he said they’re considering doing so.

He emphasized that his study comes from an objective perspective.

“The purpose of this was just to look at the labor market cost of doing this policy,” he said. “When policymakers make a decision they may just consider this one cost and there may be others that we haven’t considered.”

Senate Democratic leadership has voiced support for a two-tier system where both tiers are full driver’s licenses, but only one tier is compliant with federal REAL ID.

The House passed Pacheco’s bill on mostly Republican party lines last week. The Senate Public Affairs Committee is set to hear four different driver’s license bills, including Pacheco’s, Tuesday afternoon.

DRIVER’S LICENSES FOREVER

http://joemonahansnewmexico.blogspot.com/
Jan. 31, 2016

ABQ Attorney Jeff Baker writes:

A driver’s privilege card (Republican House Bill 99 that passed the House this week) requires applicants for these cards–which would be good for only one year–to be fingerprinted. When I renew my driver’s license, which is good for 8 years, all I have to do is provide a current photo.

Getting the balance right between freedom and security is challenging, but it seems as if Governor Martinez and the House Republicans want more than security. The road they are traveling does not lead to Ronald Reagan’s “shining city upon a hill.” The road they are following leads to a much darker place.

Senate may slow progress of governor’s pet bills in session’s second half

Posted: Saturday, January 30, 2016 10:15 pm | Updated: 1:05 am, Sun Jan 31, 2016.

By Steve Terrell
The New Mexican

 Democrat-controlled Senate panel to debate competing license bills

Posted: Friday, January 29, 2016 10:30 pm | Updated: 11:12 pm, Fri Jan 29, 2016.

By Uriel J. Garcia
The New Mexican

NM Senate introduces bipartisan alternative to House’s Real ID bill

The Republican-backed driver’s license bill that passed the New Mexico House of Representatives Wednesday night now faces a rocky reception in the Democrat-controlled state Senate, where a rival bill is in the works.

Senate Bill 231 was introduced Thursday afternoon. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Pete Campos, D-Las Vegas, is the reincarnation of the bipartisan bill that passed the Senate last year.

It has some similarities to House Bill 99 but has differences too, which could mean compromises or more gridlock.

Like the House bill, it would create two kinds of licenses, but US citizens would have the right to choose one that complies with the federal Real ID requirements, or a standard license that doesn’t meet those requirements.

Undocumented immigrants would also be eligible for the second license.

The new bill is still popular with many senators in both parties.

“New Mexicans want to fix the Real ID issue,” said Sen. Howie Morales, D-Silver City. “People don’t care about the partisan politics and it’s time that we fix it. I believe the Senate version that we passed a year ago would have fixed it. It’s the same version we’re passing now.”

“We need to get the problem solved, and if we don’t do that then New Mexico is going to get laughed at and made fun of that we can’t make a damn decision on anything,” said Senate Minority Leader Stuart Ingle, R-Portales, who cosponsored last year’s Senate bill. “We need to put the party politics aside.”

The bill that passed the Republican-led House Wednesday night would create a license for US citizens that complies with Real ID and a driving permit card for undocumented immigrants.

Many lawmakers think an agreement can be reached to settle the differences between the bills. That work would probably begin with a small team of negotiators once the Senate passes its bill, which currently has been assigned to the Senate Committees Committee.

See full video here.

Republican-led House passes Real ID license bill

Rep. Miguel Garcia, D-Albuquerque, addresses the crowd outside the Capitol on Monday during a rally against House Bill 99, which is aimed at making New Mexico driver’s license laws compliant with the federal Real ID Act. Luis Sánchez Saturno/The New Mexican

House to vote on bill replacing licenses with driving privilege cards

Monday, January 25th, 2016

SANTA FE – Legislation that would replace driver’s licenses with driving privilege cards for immigrants who are in the country illegally is headed to a vote – probably Wednesday – on the House floor.

The House Judiciary Committee endorsed the bill just hours after hundreds of immigrant rights supporters rallied at the Capitol to oppose it, calling it discriminatory and punitive.

Minority Democrats tried to slow the progress of the legislation, which was fast-tracked by the House’s GOP leadership.

“What I see now is a train wreck,” said Rep. Ken Martinez, D-Grants, who said the Senate would pass its own, Democratic-backed legislation.

House Bill 99 would create a driver’s license compliant with the federal Real ID law that all New Mexicans who are here legally would have to get.

Immigrants who cannot prove they are legally in the U.S. – who now can get driver’s licenses under a 2003 law – could apply for driving privilege cards that opponents of the bill say would amount to a “scarlet letter.”

Legislation pending in the Democratic-controlled Senate takes a different approach to bringing New Mexico in line with Real ID. Under Senate Bill 174, undocumented immigrants could still get licenses – although not Real ID-compliant – while everyone here legally could choose between that license or a Real ID compliant license.

The vote in the House Judiciary Committee after a sometimes-contentious hearing was 7 Republicans in favor of House Bill 99 and 6 Democrats against it.

It has the backing of Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, who wants to stop issuing licenses to undocumented immigrants but for the first time supports their getting driver’s privilege cards.

“With this two-tier compromise, not only will we end the dangerous law that gives driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, but also provide New Mexico citizens with a secure ID that they can use to board an aircraft without having to buy a passport,” Martinez’s spokesman, Chris Sanchez, said in a statement.

The state has two years before its licenses won’t be good for flying, but some federal installations are already clamping down on using licenses as the sole ID for entry.

Taxation and Revenue Secretary Demesia Padilla said that the main concern of the immigrant community has been being able to drive legally, and that the House bill satisfies that.

“I believe the administration has listened and has made the compromises to move us forward,” she told the Judiciary Committee.

But hundreds of protesters from around the state rallied outside the Capitol, chanting and waving signs such as “No Racismo” and “Keep My Parents Licensed.”

Allen Sanchez, representing the state’s Roman Catholic bishops, said the debate over driver’s licenses has progressed markedly from a few years ago, when the fight was over whether undocumented immigrants should be authorized to drive at all.

“The debate now has gone beyond the privilege of driving. … You’re going to drive,” he told a cheering crowd. “Now let’s do it with dignity.”

According to immigrant rights group Somos Un Pueblo Unido, which organized the rally, about 500 people had registered at a lobbying training session before the Capitol rally.

Democrats said there are ways to crack down on driver’s license fraud without punishing immigrants.

House Minority Leader Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, said drivers with privilege cards indicating they are in the U.S. illegally could get into trouble at the border checkpoint between Las Cruces and Socorro.

Opponents also objected that the House bill doesn’t give most drivers a choice of whether to get a Real ID-compliant license.

“I kind of prefer you would let the citizen decide what driver’s license they want, not mandate to them. … There are citizens that just don’t want to opt into a federal ID,” Rep. Martinez said.

He urged the committee to slow down, take time to compare the House bill with the Senate bill, and figure out where compromise might be reached.

“I think we’re closer than we’ve ever been,” he said, adding that the Martinez administration has “moved substantially.”

Critics also said House Bill 99’s provisions – including fingerprinting and annual renewals for driving privilege cards – are so onerous that many immigrants simply wouldn’t get the licenses.

“People are going to drive regardless. … All they need is keys,” said Rep. Antonio “Moe” Maestas, D-Albuquerque.

Maestas also said the fingerprinting required for driving privilege cards were “requirements only Donald Trump would love.”

People protest at anti-discrimination rally outside of the State Capitol on on Monday, January 25, 2016. About 200 people showed up to support Somos Un Pueblo Unido to fight the Real ID driver’s license House Bill 99. Luis Sánchez Saturno/The New Mexican

Posted: Monday, January 25, 2016 8:45 pm | Updated: 10:16 pm, Mon Jan 25, 2016.

The New Mexican

Businesses across the state are nervous over driver’s license impasse

A bill touted as the compromise fix to bring New Mexico driver’s licenses into line with the federal Real ID law — and criticized by opponents as racist and discriminatory —cleared its first legislative hurdle on Thursday.

Backed by House Republicans and GOP Gov. Susana Martinez, it would end driver’s licenses for immigrants who are here illegally and instead offer them driving privilege cards.

All other drivers would have to get licenses that were compliant with the stricter requirements of the federal Real ID law.

House Bill 99 passed the Regulatory and Public Affairs Committee on a 4-3 vote, with Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed. It goes next to the Judiciary Committee.

Sponsor Rep. Paul Pacheco, R-Albuquerque, said it was a compromise that would “put this issue to rest.”

But Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero, D-Albuquerque, said, “I see nothing in this bill that is a compromise.”

The state’s failure to comply with the Real ID law has led to a crackdown on the use of state driver’s licenses as ID at some federal installations in New Mexico. Starting two years from now, the current licenses would not be sufficient as ID to board airplanes.

Democrats favor a different path to compliance: keep issuing driver’s licenses to immigrants who are not in the country legally, and offer a Real ID-compliant license to other drivers who want one. Legal residents would be eligible for either tier of license under that plan.

The Senate passed a bill last year to do that; similar legislation was introduced Thursday in the Senate.

Business groups backed House Bill 99. Terri Cole of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce called it “a very sensible and compassionate and clear solution to the issue.”

Department of Public Safety Secretary Greg Fouratt said the issuance of driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants, authorized under a 2003 law, has had an unintended consequence: turning licenses into commodities for criminal organizations.

House Bill 99 would eliminate that temptation for criminal groups, he said.

Opponents of House Bill 99 said the cards — which would be a different design and color — would automatically mark immigrants as undocumented and subject them to discrimination or harassment.

Maria Cristina Lopez of Somos Un Pueblo Unido said it was “a slap in the face of hard-working New Mexico immigrant families.”

Taking away licenses would make it harder for immigrants to get jobs, opponents said. Privilege cards would be more complicated because they would require annual renewals, and the cards would have limited usefulness, they argued.

And legal residents of the state would not have a choice of whether to get Real ID compliant licenses, under House Bill 99, opponents objected.

Pacheco said he was aware of that objection and indicated he is open to considering changing it.

“We have problems with this bill because we think it turns the MVD into an immigration department. It’s not practical,” said Allen Sanchez executive director of the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Under Pacheco’s bill, driving privilege cards could not be used as ID for official federal purposes and would not be valid for ID purposes outside the state.

Applicants would have to complete a driver’s education course, pass a written and road test, submit fingerprints, and prove they either had lived in New Mexico for at least two years or had filed New Mexico personal income taxes the previous year.

Bill calling for separate immigrant driving cards passes first hurdle

Rep. Paul Pacheco, R-Albuquerque, speaks before the House Regulatory and Public Affairs Committee on Thursday about House Bill 99, which would make state driver’s licenses compliant with the federal Real ID Act while allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain a driving privilege card. Luis Sánchez Saturno/The New Mexican

Posted: Thursday, January 21, 2016 11:00 pm | Updated: 12:09 pm, Fri Jan 22, 2016.

By Uriel J. Garcia
The New Mexican

A Republican-majority House committee approved a bill Thursday that would make New Mexico driver’s licenses compliant with the federal Real ID Act and allow undocumented immigrants to obtain a driving privilege card.

The bill, sponsored by Reps. Paul Pacheco, R-Albuquerque, and Andy Nuñez, R-Hatch, passed its first hurdle with a 4-3 vote in the House Regulatory and Public Affairs Committee after a nearly three-hour debate. It now goes to the House Judiciary Committee.

Both supporters and opponents of the bill spoke passionately about its potential impact during the hearing. Republicans argued it will make licenses compliant with federal requirements and still allow undocumented immigrants to legally drive. Meanwhile, Democrats blamed Republicans for targeting undocumented immigrants under the pretext of trying to comply with federal regulations.

Pacheco and Nuñez’s bill would create a driver’s license system that would allow U.S. citizens and immigrants with lawful status in the country to receive a license compliant with the Real ID Act. Meanwhile, undocumented immigrants would receive a driving privilege card that states it’s not to be used for federal purposes.

As lawmakers discussed the bill, members of Somos Un Pueblo Unido, a local immigrant rights organization, sat in the House gallery wearing yellow T-shirts that read, “Choose dignity not discrimination.”

The group members said they oppose the bill because it gives undocumented immigrants a “scarlet letter.” Since undocumented immigrants would be the only segment of the population to have driving privilege cards, they said, this could lead to discrimination by police officers.

“The driving privilege card makes us vulnerable to discrimination and racism,” said Bartolo Canales, who spoke against the bill during a public comment period.

Since the U.S. Department of Homeland Security recently announced that New Mexico licenses wouldn’t be recognized for federal purposes, lawmakers have proposed at least four different bills they say will resolve the issue.

The federal government has said that New Mexico residents can use their licenses to board domestic commercial flights until 2018. But Republican lawmakers say that if Democrats don’t join them in approving one of their bills, residents eventually will have to buy a passport to fly on a plane and access federal buildings.

Pacheco’s bill marks a step back from his previous efforts to repeal a state law allowing licenses for undocumented immigrants, without offering the alternative driving privilege cards — efforts supported by Gov. Susana Martinez.

In TV ads and Facebook posts, Martinez recently has said that she supports Pacheco and Nuñez’s bill because it makes the state compliant with the Real ID Act and prohibits immigrants without lawful status in the U.S. from obtaining a driver’s license.

The bill calls for a renewable, one-year driving privilege card. Applicants would have to prove they’ve lived in the state for two years and be fingerprinted by the state Department of Public Safety.

Pacheco told the panel of lawmakers Thursday that after sponsoring several bills to repeal the 2003 immigrant license law, he and the governor came up with this compromise. He said he has heard from undocumented immigrants who say they need licenses to drive to work and drive their U.S.-born children to schools.

Still, immigrant rights advocates oppose the bill because it singles out undocumented immigrants. Police officers who encounter a driver with a privilege card could end up harassing the driver because the card would clearly indicate that he or she is an undocumented immigrant, advocates say.

Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero, D-Albuquerque, spoke against the bill, saying Pacheco’s proposal would force her — along with other U.S. citizens — to get a Real ID-compliant license even if she doesn’t want one.

“That’s what is concerning to me,” Caballero said, “because I thought that’s what all of us are all about — having choices.”

Democrats and immigrant rights advocates support a different bill the Senate passed last year when 11 Republicans joined all 24 Democrats. That measure later died in the House of Representatives. It would provide a driver’s license compliant with the federal Real ID Act for U.S. citizens and immigrants with lawful status who want it. A secondary driver’s license would be available for undocumented immigrants and U.S. citizens who do not want a Real ID-compliant license.

Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto, D-Albuquerque, filed a similar bill Thursday.

Contact Uriel J. Garcia at 986-3062 or ugarcia@sfnewmexican.com. Follow him on Twitter @ujohnnyg.

Kirtland still accepting New Mexico driver’s licenses

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Kirtland Air Force Base officials said Wednesday that the base is continuing to accept New Mexico driver’s licenses as proof of identification despite the U.S. Department of Defense’s announcement that its facilities will no longer accept New Mexico licenses.

The announcement did not specify when military and federal agencies must stop accepting the licenses, but all three Air Force bases in New Mexico said they would continue to do so until receiving further information from the Defense Department.

Kirtland, which has numerous missions, reportedly including the storage of nuclear munitions, has more than 300 tenants, including Sandia National Laboratories facilities, the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

“All federal agencies including DOD must comply with the law regarding the use of Real IDs for official purposes,” Wednesday’s announcement said. “For most DOD installations, an identification card or an installation pass is required to facilitate access. Hence, where an ID or an installation pass is used for physical access, DOD installations are prohibited from accepting driver’s licenses or state identification cards from states deemed non-REAL ID compliant.

“DOD policy allows commanders to waive the DOD access control requirements for special situations, circumstances, or emergencies. Therefore, installations may authorize other alternatives to facilitate installation access, such as a graduation ceremony guest list, escorts, etc.”

The public affairs offices of Kirtland and Cannon Air Force Base in eastern New Mexico released identical statements Wednesday afternoon:

“The Air Force is reviewing DOD’s informal guidance reference the Interagency Security Committee Real ID Act. We are awaiting final guidance and updating our policies as appropriate. There will be no changes to them at this time. However, installation commanders are aware and are preparing to adjust base access requirements to comply with the Real ID Act as formal guidance is completed.”

A spokesman for Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogordo said base officials there were also waiting for further Department of Defense guidance.

White Sands Missile Range in south-central New Mexico announced Jan. 11 that it would no longer accept New Mexico driver’s licenses or state-issued identification cards as sole proof of identification for access to the post.

Three days later, Fort Bliss in El Paso said it, too, would stop accepting New Mexico licenses and ID cards for access to the post. White Sands and Fort Bliss are U.S. Army installations. Much of Fort Bliss lies in New Mexico.

Sandia National Laboratories, a Department of Energy facility that employs more than 8,700 people, will continue accepting New Mexico driver’s licenses, but only if they are accompanied by an additional ID such as a Social Security card, original or certified birth certificate, a federally issued U.S. passport, U.S. military ID, a Veterans Health ID card, or other Real ID-compliant identification.

Driver’s licenses issued by four other states – Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri and Washington state – are also not Real ID-compliant and will not be accepted at federal facilities, the Department of Defense said. It also said licenses from American Samoa would not be accepted.

The 2005 Real ID Act set minimum standards for issuing and producing driver’s licenses or identification cards, aimed at making them more secure. States, for example, must verify an applicant’s identity, do background checks on employees who issue them, and incorporate anti-counterfeit technology into the cards.

The original 2008 deadline has been postponed several times.

Wednesday’s announcement added urgency to the state Legislature’s efforts to agree on a plan to make state driver’s licenses Real ID-compliant.

New Mexico’s latest extension from the federal Department of Homeland Security to comply with Real ID expired in October, and there was a three-month grace period that ended on Jan. 10.

Gov. Susana Martinez and House Republicans are backing a bill that would halt the issuance of driver’s licenses to immigrants who are in the country illegally, and instead offer them driving privilege cards. Everybody else would have to get Real ID-compliant driver’s licenses.

The House Regulatory and Public Affairs Committee is slated to take up the House bill today.

Democrats are supporting a bill similar to one passed by the Senate last year, allowing immigrants who are in the country illegally to continue to get licenses – although they would be stamped as not for official federal purposes. New Mexicans who qualify for a Real ID-compliant licenses but don’t want them can also obtain the non-compliant licenses. Some people have objected to Real ID, saying it’s a ruse to implement a national ID.

Homeland Security recently announced that state licenses will continue to be valid for commercial air travel until Jan. 22, 2018.

“Unfortunately, this is the reality we face: The federal government is clamping down on our citizens because Democrats in the Legislature insist on giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants,” Martinez said in a statement Wednesday

“Our ID isn’t secure, and until we fix it, everyone from contractors, to hunters, and ultimately all citizens who simply want to board an aircraft will be affected,” she said. “We have a good compromise bill that solves the problem and stops giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, and I hope the Senate Democrats will support it.”

Democrats in the Legislature note, however, that the Real ID law allows states to issue driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, as long as those licenses are stamped “Not for official federal purposes” or something similar – a provision their House bill includes.

New Mexico’s Democrats in Congress – U.S. Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich and Reps. Ben Ray Luján and Michelle Lujan Grisham – issued a joint statement saying they urge the Legislature to “develop a Real ID-compliant driver’s license that would enable all drivers to drive legally, and provide certainty for workers and contractors who do business on federal facilities.”

They also said they would support the state’s applying for another extension from the Department of Homeland Security.

U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, a Hobbs Republican, said, “Real ID has been the law of the land for over a decade. It includes critical improvements to government-issued IDs that make our nation safer and more secure. I encourage my colleagues in the state Legislature to take action during the current session to resolve this issue once and for all.”

State’s Catholic bishops advocate for immigrant licenses, workers’ rights

Posted: Wednesday, January 20, 2016 10:40 pm | Updated: 7:38 am, Thu Jan 21, 2016.

By Milan Simonich
The New Mexican

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Following months of uncertainty and heated partisan exchanges, New Mexico lawmakers will make their first attempt to discuss a bill that would bring the state in line with the REAL ID Act amid pressure from federal agencies and promises from immigrant advocates to fight any proposal they deem unacceptable.

A House committee is scheduled Thursday to take up a GOP proposal that would create a REAL ID-compliant driver’s license and allow immigrants who are in the country illegally to obtain driver’s permits. It is one of at least two REAL ID-related proposals lawmakers are expected to tackle this session.

REAL ID Act requirements mandate proof of legal U.S. residency for holders who want to use state IDs for federal purposes.

New Mexico has no such requirement, and allows immigrants who are in the country illegally to obtain state’s driver’s licenses.

Previous attempts to repeal the state’s immigrant driver’s license law have been met with charges of racism, angry committee meetings and one lawmaker comparing the REAL ID Act to the Holocaust.

“I hope this time we can all listen to each other with respect and agree to disagree,” said Rep. Paul Pacheco, R-Albuquerque, a co-sponsor of the House proposal.

Pacheco will discuss his legislation before the House Regulatory and Public Affairs Committee. Immigrant advocates are vowing to crowd the meeting with people who they say would be affected by any changes to driver’s license law.

“Anything that doesn’t allow immigrants to keep their driver’s licenses is unacceptable to us,” said Marcela Diaz, executive director of the Santa Fe-based immigrant advocacy group Somos Un Pueblo Unido.

Diaz said her group opposes anything that puts “scarlet letters” on driver’s cards and opens immigrants to discrimination and deportation.

She favors other proposals like one sponsored by Senate Democrats that would create a “two tier” system — granting REAL ID-compliant licenses to residents and noncompliant ones to any resident who wants them. The Senate has not scheduled a committee hearing on that bill yet.

At the start of the legislative session Tuesday, immigrant advocates held signs outside the Capitol comparing Gov. Susana Martinez, a Republican, to GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump, a candidate who has come under criticism for his comments about Mexican immigrants.

Diaz said Martinez is “pushing an anti-immigrant agenda” because she previously supported repeal and now backs the House bill.

But Martinez, the nation’s only Latina governor, remains one of the few elected Republicans who have publicly denounced Trump for his remarks.

The REAL ID issue took even more immediacy in the state this week after the U.S. Defense Department announced military installations would no longer accept New Mexico driver’s licenses as proof of identification for entrance. The U.S. Homeland Security Department also said beginning in 2018, noncompliant IDs won’t be accepted to board commercial flights.

Martinez said she hoped lawmakers could come to a compromise and finally put the issue to rest.

“We have a good compromise bill that solves the problem and stops giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrant s, and I hope the Senate Democrats will support it,” Martinez said.

DOD Slams Door on NM Licenses Facilities across US will enforce Real ID access

January 20, 2016, 1:00 pm

SF Reporter

By Thomas Ragan

New Mexico’s driver’s license problem just went national, at least among those New Mexicans who work at or would like to visit Department of Defense facilities.

The DOD announced today that the state’s driver’s licenses will no longer be accepted at its federal installations across the country, a facet of the Real ID Act that had not been addressed ever since the US Department of Homeland Security granted the Land of Enchantment a two-year extension in late December, allowing New Mexico IDs for use to board airplanes flying within the US.

But it was unclear where federal facilities stood on the matter until now; the act was enacted by Congress in 2005 and was designed to curb terrorism in the wake of 9/11.

Both Sandia National Laboratories and White Sands Missile Range in the southern part of the state a week ago started rejecting the licenses, turning back civilians at their gates, but Los Alamos National Laboratory, a federal facility that falls under the Department of Energy, so far is safe.

The Real ID Act has minimal impact thus far, because most of the employees have already cleared federal background checks with proof of US citizenship and have badges that grant entry, according to the lab’s public affairs department.

The restrictions come as legislators at the Roundhouse in Santa Fe are set to debate a series of bills that would either allow New Mexicans to avoid such chaos by coming into compliance with the Real ID Act right away or give all residents, both undocumented and US citizens, the choice to decide, in a two-tier system in which they could choose between a Real ID-compliant driver’s license or a non-compliant license that would allow carriers to drive but not board airplanes or enter federal facilities.

In her State of the State Address on Tuesday, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez told legislators that she opposed any bill that would give undocumented residents a license to drive, contending that the distribution of such IDs only lures crime to New Mexico and that it’s a magnet for human trafficking, something pro-immigrant rights groups in Santa Fe say is absurd.

So far, there are 22 states that have complied with the federal law, in which license holders need to provide proof of US citizenship, either through a birth certificate or a Social Security card, along with a place of residency.

New Mexico is one of five states that have been singled out by the federal government for having serious problems with compliance; the others are Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri and Washington state.

The remainder of the states have been granted extensions to comply with the Real ID Act, and on Jan. 9, the US Department of Homeland Security outlined the time frame in which all the states in the nation will have to meet federal standards, which are designed to curb terrorism. –

See more at: http://www.sfreporter.com/santafe/article-11479-dod-slams-door-on-nm-licenses.html#sthash.4seUW14N.dpuf

Jan. 20 First News: New Mexico House Leaders Determined To Push Immigrant-License Issue This Session

By Tom Trowbridge • KSFR

Jan. 20, 2016

A new poll revealed that nearly 70 percent of New Mexicans do not support Gov. Susana Martinez’s proposal to take away driver’s licenses from undocumented immigrants.

ABQ Journal

Jan 19, 2016 Pg. C2

Poll: Most registered voters back driver’s licenses for immigrants

Posted: Monday, January 18, 2016 8:15 pm | Updated: 8:40 pm, Mon Jan 18, 2016.

By Uriel J. Garcia
The New Mexican

ALBUQUERQUE — A majority of New Mexicans support a legislative proposal that would make the state compliant with the federal Real ID Act while still allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain a driver’s license, according to a poll commissioned by immigration advocates that was released Monday.

The telephone survey conducted this month by Latino Decisions, an Albuquerque-based national polling firm, found that 56 percent of registered voters favor a law that would allow eligible applicants to choose a Real ID-compliant license while still allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain a license that wouldn’t be recognized for federal purposes, such as entering secure government buildings.

Thirty-nine percent of respondents disapproved of such a proposal and 4 percent didn’t have an opinion, the poll results showed.

In the past legislative session, 11 Republican senators joined all 24 Democrats in the Senate in approving such a bill on a 35-5 vote. But the measure died in the House of Representatives. Democrats are expected to propose such a bill in the current legislative session, which starts Tuesday.

Sponsors of the poll said it also found that 69 percent of respondents approved of allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain a driver’s license as long as there are stricter penalties for fraud cases and that those licenses state that they are aren’t valid for federal purposes. Twenty-seven percent disagreed with allowing undocumented immigrants to get driver’s licenses, the results show.

Gabriel Sanchez, research director for Latino Decisions, said at a Monday news conference at the office of the New Mexico American Civil Liberties Union that the results didn’t surprise him because New Mexico is more accepting of immigrants compared to other neighboring states.

“New Mexicans are not in this punitive mindset toward immigrants,” said Sanchez, who is also a political science associate professor at The University of New Mexico. “They actually have a very level-headed approach to policy issues related to immigrants and immigration more broadly.”

The poll also showed that 56 percent of those surveyed approve of Republican Gov. Susana Martinez’s job performance.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security in October sent the state a letter denying an extension to make New Mexico driver’s licenses compliant with the Real ID Act. While New Mexico driver’s licenses no longer can be used as identification to enter federal facilities such as military bases, the federal government recently delayed until 2018 a part of the law that requires the U.S. Transportation Security Administration to ask for Real ID-compliant credentials to board a commercial aircraft to fly domestically. Since the law passed in 2005 the federal government has repeatedly delayed this part of the law.

After the federal government denied an extension, many state residents were worried that they would need a passport to board a commercial flight within the U.S.

The release of the poll results came a day before the start of a 30-day legislative session in which how to make New Mexico licenses compliant with the federal law will be the subject of an ongoing political battle. Since the Department of Homeland Security denied the state an extension to implement the Real ID Act, Republican and Democratic lawmakers have offered proposals to fix it.

The bill that the Senate approved last year would have created two tiers of driver’s licenses and made the state compliant with the Real ID law. One license would have been good for federal purposes and driving; the other just for driving.

Martinez opposed the Senate compromise bill creating two tiers of licenses. She wanted a repeal of the immigrant driver’s license law. Her favored bill cleared the House but died in the Senate.

Through a spokesman, Martinez downplayed the poll, which was commissioned by Somos Un Pueblo Unido, a Santa Fe-based immigrant organization that supports the existing driver’s license law.

“Left-wing special interest groups might be able to trick a few gullible legislators with slanted poll questions that mischaracterize the issue,” said spokesman Michael Lonergan, adding, “but New Mexicans will not be so easily fooled if they try to continue giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, while making New Mexicans jump through special hoops to avoid having to use passports.”

Martinez has blamed Democrats, saying they stalled efforts to resolve the issue in past legislative sessions. In turn, many Democrats blame the governor, saying she has lied to residents about the need for a passport to fly domestically, using that as a pretext to argue for repeal of the 2003 state law that allows undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses.

House Speaker Don Tripp, R-Socorro, through a press aide dismissed the poll, saying the results are inaccurate and calling the group that commissioned the survey a “left-wing” organization.

“New Mexicans have been crystal clear: They want to end the dangerous practice of giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants,” said Emilee Cantrell, a spokeswoman for House Republicans. “This left-wing advocacy group’s cooked-up polling numbers are just as bungled today as they were in previous years. The Democrats need to do what’s right for New Mexico and stop kidding themselves about where the public stands on this issue.”

A bill by two House Republicans, Reps. Paul Pacheco of Albuquerque and Andy Nuñez of Hatch, proposes a system in which undocumented immigrants could obtain driving privilege cards. This is a concession from Pacheco and Nuñez, who previously sponsored bills to repeal all driving privileges for immigrants.

Immigrant advocates oppose Pacheco’s and Nuñez’s bill because they say such cards would result in harassment and possible deportation for undocumented immigrants who would be the only segment of the population to have such identification cards.

Sanchez said the poll taker explained the Real ID Act and the issues surrounding New Mexico driver’s licenses before recording a response. The survey also asked about voting policies and other immigration-related questions such as whether children and mothers who recently immigrated to the U.S. from Central America, fleeing violence, should be allowed to stay in the country.

The polling firm said it surveyed 500 registered voters statewide from Jan. 6 to Jan. 12. The firm said the poll has a 4.4 percent margin of error.

Contact Uriel Garcia at 986-3062 or ugarcia@sfnewmexican.com. Follow him on Twitter @ujohnnyg.

Poll: Majority of New Mexicans support licenses for undocumented citizens

Stuart Dyson, KOB Eyewitness News 4 Updated: 01/18/2016 5:09 PM Created: 01/18/2016 4:24 PM

The 2016 New Mexico legislative session gets underway Tuesday, and it’s showdown time in the battle over driver’s licenses for undocumented citizens. The governor is not letting up on her six-year campaign to stop the practice, but new polling numbers just in show most New Mexicans don’t feel the same way as Gov. Susana Martinez.

The poll is from the national research group Latino Decisions, which is headed by UNM political science professor Gabe Sanchez. Their poll also differs some from others asking similar questions.

Just in time for the session, Gov. Martinez is in a new TV ad rallying opponents of the licenses.

The Latino Decisions poll shows 69 percent of registered voters favor the licenses, while 29 percent oppose it.

56 percent favor the two-tiered license compromise that passed the state Senate last year, while 39 percent oppose that legislation.

“This poll confirms what we’ve known for years, and that is that the governor and their allies in the New Mexico state House are out of the mixture and they are at odds with what most New Mexicans want to do,” said Rep. Javier Martinez, D-Albuquerque.

“This is what New Mexico is all about,” said Catholic Bishops Conference spokesman Allen Sanchez. “I’m proud to hear that our New Mexicans are coming from a place of compassion, and compassion comes from a formed conscience.”

Late Monday afternoon, the Governor’s Office sent a statement regarding the poll:

“Every poll has been consistent and the outcome of the last election emphatically proved that point,” the statement said, pointing that the licenses were a big issue in the campaign that led up to Republicans seizing control of the New Mexico House of Representatives for the first time in more than 60 years in 2014.

The organization randomly interviewed 500 registered voters in New Mexico drawn from a statewide file of households. Respondents were contacted by cell phone, landline or online and filled out a seven-minute survey, according to Latino Decisions.

Click here to see video.

REAL ID Poll

KOAT-NM

Jan 18, 2016

See KOAT video here.

Sondeo: La mayoría de Nuevo Mexicanos apoyan licencias para personas indocumentadas

By Daniela Parraga

 

dparraga@ramarcom.com

Santa Fe – Hoy comenzó la sesión legislativa 2016 en Santa Fe y con esto sigue la batalla por mantener el programa de licencias para personas indocumentadas que residen en Nuevo México.

Aunque la gobernadora Susana Martínez no da brazo a torcer con su campaña para frenar la práctica, información nueva indica que la mayoría de los nuevo mexicanos no comparten la opinión de la gobernadora.

De acuerdo a la encuesta realizada por el grupo nacional de investigación “Latino Decisiones” dirigida por el profesor de ciencias políticas de la Universidad de Nuevo México, Gabe Sánchez, 69 por ciento de los votantes registrados están a favor del programa de licencias, mientras que sólo un 29 por ciento se oponen a la idea.

Cincuenta y seis por ciento de los encuestados favorece un sistema de dos licencias, que fue aprobada en el senado el año pasado, mientras que un 39 por ciento dijo que se opone a este compromiso.

La gobernadora por su parte respondió “cada encuesta ha sido consistente y los resultados de la última elección lo comprueban”.  Además señaló que el tema de las licencias fue y es un tema decisivo que ayudó a los republicanos a tomar el control de la camara de representantes de nuevo méxico por primera vez en 60 años.

Haga click aqui para ir al sitio web de Telemundo.

Poll: Most in NM want Senate license compromise bill

By Andy Lyman | Jan. 18, 2016

NM Political Report

A national research and polling group released data on Monday that, they say, shows that a majority of New Mexicans are in favor of a previous Senate bill that would allow the option of getting a standard driver’s license or one that is Real ID compliant.

Somos un Pueblo Unido, an immigrant right’s group held a press conference to announce findings by polling group Latino Decisions.

Somos un Pueblo Unido commissioned the poll. The group opposes bills that would bar those who are in the country illegally from getting driver’s licenses.

Gabriel Sanchez, a University of New Mexico professor and Latino Decisions pollster said the group’s poll revealed that 56 percent of registered voters in New Mexico are in favor of giving New Mexicans the choice to have a Real ID license or not.

“Here in New Mexico, unlike some of the narrative that you see out there, New Mexicans are not in this punitive mindset towards immigrants,” Sanchez said.

Sanchez said he believes New Mexicans are mostly in favor of the Senate compromise because of personal relationships with immigrants.

“The majority of the Hispanic registered voters in the state of New Mexico know somebody personally that has been an undocumented immigrant,” Sanchez said.

Rep. Javier Martinez, D-Albuquerque, who was also in attendance said the poll shows that Gov. Susana Martinez and her administration are out of touch with New Mexicans.

“This poll confirms what we’ve knowns for years,” Martinez said.  “That is that the governor and her allies in the New Mexico State House are out of the mainstream and they’re at odds with what most New Mexicans want to do with regards to this issue.”

Gov. Martinez has made it well known that she favors a different driver’s license bill that would create a special permit for those without legal documentation. In the past, Martinez has only supported bills that would outright repeal the law that allows those who are in the country illegally to drive legally.

Some Republicans in the House have argued that the Senate compromise bill would not make the state federally compliant with the Real ID Act.

A spokeswoman for the House Republican Caucus tweeted an apparent jab at Somos Un Pueblo Unido on Monday afternoon.

NM Political Report left a voicemail and email for a Martinez spokesman on Monday afternoon. We will add a response if and when we receive one.

Driver’s licenses will likely be a highly discussed topic during the next session, which starts at noon on Tuesday.

Latino Decisions interviewed 500 registered voters in the state. The polling organization contacted them by cell phone, landline or online in both English and Spanish. The survey has a margin of error in +/- 4.4 percent.

Political fight over driver’s licenses pitched heading into session

Posted: January 17, 2016

By Uriel J. Garcia
The New Mexican

In each of the past five regular legislative sessions, Republican lawmakers have tried to repeal the state law that allows undocumented immigrants to obtain a driver’s license. They were acting on Gov. Susana Martinez’s campaign promise, first made in 2010. Each of Martinez’s attempts failed.

This year, House Republicans and the governor have given up on a repeal. Instead, at least some House members want to rewrite the law so that immigrants would receive one-year driving privilege cards instead of licenses that could be valid for up to eight years. The privilege cards would not be recognized for federal purposes, such as entering secure government installations or boarding a domestic flight.

In a television ad paid for by a group friendly to Martinez, the political committee Advance New Mexico Now, the governor says the driver’s license law must be repealed. But then she endorses the bill that would allow driving privilege cards for immigrants. Martinez opposed a similar Republican-sponsored bill for privilege cards in 2011.

If Martinez is unhappy about losing her fight to repeal the law, Democrats are just as displeased with what she is proposing instead. They say the bill for privilege cards would make them so hard to obtain that it would dissuade immigrants from applying. Among other restrictions, the bill would require an applicant to prove to the state Motor Vehicle Division that he or she “has continuously been a resident in New Mexico for the preceding two years.”

Democrats say they favor a compromise closer to the existing law because immigrants are important to the state’s oil, farming and dairy industries. For example, Mexican nationals compose almost the entire crew of harvesters for green chile, the state’s most famous crop. Advocates of driver’s licenses for immigrants say these workers ought to be able to lawfully drive to jobs that keep the state’s economy moving.

Opponents of the Republican bill on driving privilege cards have another concern. The Santa Fe-based immigrant-rights group, Somos Un Pueblo Unido, opposes the measure because it says undocumented immigrants would be the only segment of the population with a privilege card, subjecting them to harassment by police officers.

“It unnecessarily discriminates against the over 90,000 New Mexicans, immigrant families who live, work and pay taxes here, endangers minorities already vulnerable to discrimination and singles them out for deportation by state law enforcement who already report people over to [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement],” said Marcela Diaz, executive director of the group.

The political fight over driver’s licenses is especially pitched heading into the legislative session.

Martinez and House Republicans for months have said that New Mexico residents would need to buy passports to board domestic flights because state driver’s licenses weren’t compliant with the Real ID Act, a federal identification system. But a recent decision by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security changed that, at least until 2018. Homeland Security said residents of all 27 states that are not in compliance with the Real ID Act can continue using their state driver’s licenses to board flights for at least another two years.

In an appeal to the public for support, Martinez raised the issue of both air travel and access to military bases through a posting Friday on her Facebook page.

She wrote: “For years, I’ve been fighting to repeal the dangerous law that gives driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. Unfortunately, it’s been blocked at every turn. Now, New Mexico licenses are no longer accepted as valid identification at various federal facilities, including White Sands and Sandia Labs. If the Legislature blocks reform again, New Mexicans will have to buy passports in order to board domestic flights in 2018.”

Democrats say it is Martinez who has been the obstacle to compromise, even when her fellow Republicans in the Senate worked with them to achieve a solution.

Last year, 11 Republican senators joined all 24 Democrats in approving a bill that would have created two tiers of driver’s licenses and made the state compliant with the Real ID law. One license would have been good for federal purposes and driving; the other just for driving. U.S. citizens who do not want a Real ID-compliant driver’s license could choose to obtain the other license, saving them the time and possible expense of presenting a birth certificate at a motor vehicle office to get a license that comports with the Real ID Act. Immigrants also would receive the license that could not be used for federal identification.

In order to receive a Real ID-compliant license, an applicant would have to visit a state Motor Vehicle Division and show either a birth certificate to prove U.S. citizenship or a federal document proving that person is an immigrant with lawful status in America.

Martinez opposed the Senate compromise bill on two tiers of licenses, but it still cleared that chamber 35-5 before dying in the House of Representatives. In turn, senators killed a Martinez-favored bill to repeal the driver’s license law for immigrants.

One Democrat in the House of Representatives said the Senate measure should be revived as soon as the legislative session starts Tuesday. “The House Republicans have lost all moral authority on this issue. Let’s pass the Senate compromise bill the first week of the session and solve the problem,” said Rep. Antonio “Moe” Maestas, D-Albuquerque.

This year’s bill for driving privilege cards is being sponsored by Reps. Paul Pacheco, R-Albuquerque, and Andy Nuñez, R-Hatch. Other Republicans and one Democrat in the House have alternative bills related to compliance with the Real ID Act.

A bill by Rep. Bill Rehm, R-Albuquerque, would create a Real ID-compliant license or an identification card. Undocumented immigrants or people who don’t want a license compliant with the federal law could obtain an alternative license that wouldn’t be recognized for federal purposes.

Rep. Paul Bandy, R-Aztec, has introduced a measure similar to Rehm’s. “I hope we can get it done this year because it has affected people’s lives in New Mexico,” Bandy said. “And the longer we wait, it’s going to affect more people.”

Another bill sponsored by Rep. Stephanie Garcia Richard, D-Los Alamos, would create a Real ID-compliant identification card but not deal with driver’s licenses. People who want or need a Real ID-compliant identification card could obtain one by proving they are U.S. citizens or immigrants with lawful status.

Garcia Richard in the last legislative session voted with Republicans to repeal the immigrant driver’s license law. She said her bill this time would stop the politicking over the driver’s license issue while giving New Mexicans a means to have identification that meets requirements of the Real ID law.

“While many of the proposals for Real ID look like a compromise, I don’t think any of them have enough support to pass the Legislature or be signed by the governor. This threatens any true fix of this issue in the upcoming legislative session,” Garcia Richard said.

She said she would continue to vote for the repeal of issuing driver’s licenses to undocumented New Mexicans if it came to that. But, she said, combining driver’s licenses with Real ID compliance has created a standoff in which legislation is unacceptable to one side or the other.

Contact Uriel Garcia at 986-3062 or ugarcia@sfnewmexican.com. Follow him on Twitter @ujohnnyg.

State’s most influential lawmakers squaring off ahead of session

January 17, 2016 

By Milan Simonich
The New Mexican

A partir de hoy las licencias de Nuevo México no cumplen con los requisitos del Real ID, por lo que algunos edificios federales han comenzado a dejar de aceptarlas. (Archivo)

Buscan que los inmigrantes indocumentados sólo reciban “permisos de conducir”.

Legisladores republicanos en Nuevo México presentaron hoy oficialmente la propuesta HB99, una iniciativa de ley que eliminaría las licencias de conducir para inmigrantes indocumentados con el fin de reemplazarlas con un “permiso de conducir”.Los legisladores aseguran que la propuesta tiene el propósito de cumplir con los requisitos del Real ID, lo que ha provocado las críticas de los defensores de los inmigrantes.

“La práctica de dar licencias de conducir a inmigrantes indocumentados es peligrosa. Los residentes de Nuevo México exigen que terminemos con ella”, dijo el legislador republicano Paul Pacheco en un comunicado.El representante del distrito 23 indicó que en repetidas ocasiones los legisladores han tratado de terminar con esta ley y cumplir con los requerimientos del Real ID, pero los demócratas han “matado” cada uno de sus intentos.Aseguró que esta propuesta es un esfuerzo por lograr un compromiso entre republicanos y demócratas.

Bajo esta iniciativa, que también es impulsada por el legislador republicano Andy Nuñez, el estado de Nuevo México comenzaría a emitir licencias de conducir que cumplen con las regulaciones del Real ID, mientras que los inmigrantes indocumentados solo recibirían “permisos de conducir”Para poder tener estos permisos, deberán cumplir con un curso de conducción, pasar un examen, tomar huellas digitales y demostrar que han vivido en el estado por lo menos dos años y haber presentado sus impuestos estatales. El permiso de conducir solos sería vigente por un año.”Es horrible que la gobernadora Martínez y sus aliados en la legislatura estén utilizando el tema del Real ID para impulsar su agenda antiinmigrante”, manifestó a Efe Marcela Díaz, directora del grupo Somos Un Pueblo Unido, con base en Santa Fe, en Nuevo México.

El Departamento de Seguridad Nacional (DHS) informó el pasado viernes de que dio una extensión de dos años a los 26 estados, entre ellos a Nuevo México, que todavía incumplen con los requisitos de la ley federal Real ID, que obliga a emitir licencias de conducir que cumplan con varios requisitos de seguridad.La nueva fecha límite es el 22 de enero de 2018, y si el estado no cumple con el Real ID, las licencias de conducir emitidas por Nuevo México no serán aceptadas como identificación para abordar aviones comerciales en los aeropuertos nacionales, entre otros casos.A pesar de la extensión, a partir de hoy las licencias de Nuevo México no cumplen con los requisitos del Real ID, por lo que algunos edificios federales han comenzado a dejar de aceptarlas.White Sands Missile Range (WSMR), un campo de cohetes del ejército de Estados Unidos, anunció hoy que ya no aceptará las licencias como una sola forma de identificación.

Por su parte, Sandia Labs índico a su vez que aquellos que presenten licencias de Nuevo México deberán presentar adicionalmente una segunda forma de identificación.La portavoz de Sandia Labs, Lindsey Kibler, dijo hoy a Efe que los visitantes deberán presentar además de su licencia otra identificación como es su tarjeta de Seguro Social, acta de nacimiento o tarjeta de registro de votante.

En 2005, el Congreso aprobó la ley federal del Real ID, que pretende crear identificaciones más difíciles de falsificar y que cumplan con requisitos más estrictos para verificar la identidad del solicitante, incluyendo su estatus migratorio.

La gobernadora de Nuevo México ha declarado públicamente que una de las principales razones por las que Nuevo México no cumple con los requisitos del Real ID es porque una ley aprobada en 2003 otorga licencias de conducir a inmigrantes indocumentados.

Somos Un Pueblo Unido calcula que aproximadamente 90.000 indocumentados tienen licencias de conducir en ese estado.”Quieren obligar a todos los residentes de Nuevo México a regresar al Departamento de Motores y Vehículos (DMV) y obtener una nueva licencia que cumpla con el Real Id”, lamentó Díaz.

Por su parte, legisladores demócratas apoyan una propuesta que mantendría las licencias de conducir para los inmigrantes indocumentados y daría la opción de obtener licencias que cumplen con los requisitos del Real ID para aquellos que lo requieran y lo soliciten.

La gobernadora Martínez defendió su postura recientemente ante miembros de la Cámara de Comercio de Alburquerque, a quienes aseguró que resolver este problema será una de sus prioridades durante la próxima sesión legislativa.”Por los últimos cinco años sabemos que tenemos que emitir una licencia de conducir que cumpla con los requisitos federales”, aseguró Martínez en su discurso.

La mandataria republicana dijo apoyar un sistema dual similar al implementado en Utah donde se emiten licencias de conducir para sus residentes y “permisos de manejo” para aquellos que no pueden comprobar su estatus migratorio en el país. Estos permisos solo sirven para cumplir con las regulaciones de tránsito y no para abordar aviones o entrar a edificios federales.

“Cualquier forma de discriminación no tiene lugar en Nuevo México. Utilizar el Real Id para señalar a los inmigrantes va en contra de nuestros valores y pone a nuestro estado en un peligroso camino”, dijo en declaraciones enviadas a Efe la directora ejecutiva de Equality New Mexico, Amber Royster.

“Esperamos que nuestros legisladores hagan lo correcto y no apoyen una licencia de conducir que institucionalice la discriminación”, indicó Royster.Martínez, la primera gobernadora latina del país y quien recientemente fue elegida como presidenta de la Asociación de Gobernadores Republicanos, ha intentado sin éxito revocar la ley que otorga licencias de conducir a los indocumentados desde que llegó al cargo en 2011.

Democratic leader says different REAL ID rules in New Mexico result of GOP ‘unwilling to compromise.’ Democratic House Minority Leader Brian Egolf says a Senate proposal creating a “two-tier” system would resolve current confusion in the state

By RUSSELL CONTRERAS  Associated Press
January 11, 2016

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico — The latest developments on immigrant driver’s license debate in New Mexico (all times local):

12:45 p.m.

Democratic House Minority Leader Brian Egolf says New Mexico is seeing varying REAL ID requirements because Republicans were “unwilling to compromise” on a fix last year.

The Santa Fe Democrat said Monday that a Senate proposal creating a “two-tier” system could resolve current confusion over making New Mexico compliant under the federal REAL ID Act.

The bill will allow state residents to get REAL ID compliant licenses. Others, including immigrants in the country illegally, would have had the option to keep non-REAL ID compliant identifications.

A Republican plan would create REAL ID compliant licenses and allow immigrants to apply for “driving privilege cards.”

White Sands Missile Range and Sandia Labs announced on Monday it will no longer accept just a New Mexico driver’s license as a form of identification from visitors.

12:15 p.m.

An immigrant rights group says new REAL ID restrictions in the state have nothing to do with a New Mexico law that allows immigrants in the country illegally to obtain state driver’s licenses.

Marcela Diaz, executive director of the Santa Fe-based Somos Un Pueblo, said Monday that Republican Gov. Susana Martinez had a chance last year to support a Senate bill that would have avoided the confusion.

That bill would have allowed state residents to get REAL ID compliant licenses. Others, including immigrants in the country illegally, would have had the option to keep non-REAL ID compliant identifications.

White Sands Missile Range and Sandia Labs announced on Monday it will no longer accept just a New Mexico driver’s license as a form of identification from visitors.

11:30 a.m.

New Mexico Republican House Speaker Don Tripp says new REAL ID restrictions in the state show that Democrats need to compromise on solution next session.

Tripp said Monday that Democratic state lawmakers must to agree to revise a law that allows immigrants in the country illegally to obtain state driver’s licenses.

White Sands Missile Range announced on Monday it will no longer accept New Mexico driver’s license as a form of identification from visitors. Sandia Labs also announced it will no longer accept just a New Mexico driver’s license as a form of identification.

REAL ID Act requirements mandate proof of legal U.S. residency for holders who want to use state IDs for certain federal purposes.

The GOP-controlled House and the Democratic-led Senate have dueling “two-tier” proposals.

11:15 a.m.

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez’s office says Democrats are to blame for new REAL ID restrictions that limit access to Sandia Labs and White Sands Missile Range.

Martinez spokesman Mike Lonergan said Monday that New Mexicans are being punished by the federal government because Democratic state lawmakers refuse to repeal a law that allows immigrants in the country illegally to obtain state driver’s licenses.

White Sands Missile Range announced on Monday it will no longer accept New Mexico driver’s license as a form of identification from visitors. Sandia Labs has announced it will no longer accept just a New Mexico driver’s license as a form of identification.

Lonergan says the problem could have been avoided if state lawmakers had repealed the immigrant license law.

10:45 a.m.

Sandia Labs has announced it will no longer accept just a New Mexico driver’s license as a form of identification from visitors.

Labs spokeswoman Lindsey Kibler said effective Monday all New Mexico’s driver’s licenses will be noncompliant under the federal REAL ID act and can’t be used as the sole identification to enter.

Kibler says New Mexico IDs will be accepted for a Sandia visitor badge as long as they are accompanied by an additional ID, like a Social Security card or birth certificate.

Sandia Labs joined White Sands Missile Range on Monday in no longer accepting New Mexico IDs after a Sunday deadline by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

REAL ID Act requirements mandate proof of legal U.S. residency for holders who want to use state IDs for certain federal purposes.

9 a.m.

White Sands Missile Range has announced it will no longer accept New Mexico driver’s license as a form of identification from visitors.

Range spokesman Erin Dorrance said the base stopped accepting New Mexico IDs on Monday because they aren’t in compliance with the federal REAL ID Act.

The move comes after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security declined to give New Mexico an extension on complying with tougher rules that require proof of legal U.S. residency in order for state driver’s licenses and IDs to be valid for some federal purposes.

REAL ID Act requirements mandate proof of legal U.S. residency for holders who want to use state IDs to access certain areas of federal buildings and, eventually, board commercial flights.

Lawmakers are expected this month to work on revising New Mexico’s law.

Ringside Seat: Real ID controversy is smoke screen for Martinez

Feds: New Mexico driver’s license OK for air travel for two more years

Uriel Garcia
The New Mexican

Letter to the Editor

Posted: Saturday, January 9, 2016

By H. McIlvaine Lewis