Groups Lobby for Wisconsin Driver’s Card for Immigrants

Allowing illegal immigrants to qualify for special driver’s cards would make the roads safer, reduce insurance rates and generate much-needed revenue for state government, supporters of the proposal said.

Supporters pressed those points at a news conference, a noisy rally outside the Capitol and in meetings with lawmakers as they pushed for Wisconsin to follow Utah in offering the cards.

The Legislature’s budget committee in May approved a last-minute addition to the state budget to establish the cards and the Assembly approved the plan.

The state Senate, however, stripped the provision out of its version of the budget passed last week. Assembly and Senate leaders are expected to begin reconciling their differences in the budget this week.

Residents who could not prove they are legal U.S. citizens would receive the cards from the Department of Transportation if they passed driving and eyesight tests. The cards would state in bold letters they could not be used purposes other than driving and would not establish U.S. residency.

Coalition for Safe Roads, a group that includes law enforcement, religious, farming and Latino leaders, organized the recent lobbying effort, arguing that illegal immigrants should receive the cards so they can drive to work and buy car insurance.

A 2006 law making illegal immigrants ineligible for driver’s licenses “has made the roads where I drive unsafe,” said dairy farmer John Rosenow of Cochrane, in western Wisconsin. And the Senate’s rejection of the cards was another blow to dairy farmers and the large number of immigrants who work on their farms, he said.

The plan will prevent unnecessary accidents and deaths by making sure all drivers have training, said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera, an advocacy group. That in turn should reduce insurance rates, she said.

“It is the job of the state government to ensure the safety of our roads,” she said. “It is irresponsible to vote otherwise.”

Police could not use the cards to initiate deportation proceedings unless someone committed a crime. Law enforcement officials said the cards would help identify suspects, witnesses and crime victims.

At least one critic of the plan, Sen. Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee, held firm in his opposition during a meeting with Neumann-Ortiz and other supporters.

Carpenter said 90 percent of constituents who have contacted his office since 2005 have been against giving driving privileges to illegal immigrants. Some of the critics have included immigrants who have gone through the lengthy process to become citizens, he said.

“A large portion of constituents – Latino, white, everybody across the board, Democrats, Republicans – they have concerns about the driver’s license issue,” he said. “To me, driving is more of a privilege than it would be a right.”

Carpenter said sticking the policy in the budget at the last minute without additional review and public comment was also a poor way to change the law. But supporters argued the plan belongs in the budget because the Legislative Fiscal Bureau has estimated it would generate more than $1 million in revenue in the first two years.

The cards would cost $28 and would have to be renewed every two years.

Ortiz-Neumann and others also pressed senators to agree to let illegal immigrants pay in-state tuition at University of Wisconsin System schools if they graduate from Wisconsin high schools. Senators also stripped that proposal from the budget last week.

Supporters warned Carpenter and other Democrats who control the Legislature they would alienate the growing bloc of Latino voters if they did not switch their stance on both issues.

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