California Governor Jerry Brown Signs Bill Giving Undocumented Immigrants Right To Obtain Driver’s Licenses

In a long-awaited victory for immigrant advocates, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill on Thursday allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain driver's licenses. The law will go into effect in January 2015. The Associated Press wrote that at the signing ceremony outside Los Angeles City Hall, the governor told the crowd gathered there, "This is only the first step. When a million people without their documents drive legally and with respect in the state of California, the rest of this country will have to stand up and take notice. No longer are undocumented people in the shadows."

Before the law goes into effect, writes 89.3 KPCC in Southern California, the California Department of Motor Vehicles will have to do two things: determine what kind of identifying documents will be accepted for this new pool of applicants, who won't have Social Security numbers, as well as collect input on what the licenses should look like. The latter has been a sticking point for immigrant advocates, who had argued that if the licenses were to appear different from those granted to people with Social Security numbers, it could make undocumented immigrants an easy target for discrimination.

Democratic Assemblyman Luis Alejo of Salinas, who sponsored the bill, told 89.3 KPCC that the California DMV would have to "take input on what documents are acceptable, but also on what changes are going to be minimally necessary in order to comply with the Federal Real ID Act", adding, "That federal law requires states who are granting these types of driver's licenses to have some distinguishable letters on the license." Alejo went on to say that the front of the special licenses would read "DP" for "driving privilege" before the license number instead of "DL", as on regular licenses. The back of the cards will indicate that the ID was only valid for driving purposes, not for other benefits such as employment, voting or seeking public benefits. It also won't be valid identification for boarding airplanes, according to Alejo.

Marielena Hincapie, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, told the Associated Press, "This is really a historic day for California. This is really simply about driving and ultimately about being able to engage in everyday activities that every American does." California becomes the 11^th state to grant driving privileges to undocumented immigrants, joining Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Maine, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont and Washington. The California legislature has passed similar bills in previous years, but they were vetoed by former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

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