Bill O'Neill
It has been an intense week in the House chamber of our state Legislature – razor-thin voting margins, unprecedented parliamentary procedures, three calls of the House for three consecutive days.
At the heart of last week’s events was the politically and emotionally-charged issue of issuing driver’s licenses to foreign nationals. It is an issue that has been brewing ever since Governor Martinez began campaigning for office.
I heard many voters voice similar concern during my re-election campaign. I am as concerned as anyone about New Mexico being a staging ground for illegal immigration. The stories I have heard from my constituents, read in the paper, and watched on the news are chilling.
That is why I introduced House Bill 346 to help curb criminals using our existing licensing requirements to commit fraud. It was one of three that was discussed and deliberated during a proper House committee hearing. It was ultimately tabled due to textual issues within the bill, as were the other two bills.
I was confident that I would be able to revisit my bill, address the issues brought forth in committee and present a stronger bill that would withstand scrutiny from the House, Senate and governor. Unfortunately, I never got that chance. A rare procedural move “blasted” one of the other two tabled bills onto the House floor, where lengthy discussion ensued.
Voting with my convictions
Our floor debate on this issue was respectfully heated on both sides, but parliamentary maneuvering by both parties made the process increasingly frustrating. I had major problems with some of the specifics of my colleague Representative Nuñez’s House Bill 78, and like many of my colleagues, I welcomed the opportunity to discuss those concerns.
If I had been given the opportunity to directly engage my colleague on the floor, I would have asked him his reasoning for voting for the original 2003 legislation that he now wanted to entirely reverse. What about the public safety issue – has that magically gone away in eight years, the reason that I presume you voted for the 2003 bill?
What of the notion of having uninsured and undocumented foreign nationals driving their children to school, driving themselves to work – in short, being unleashed on our highways without the ability to attain insurance?
I was not given an opportunity to have that discourse, and had to make the decision after over six hours of deliberation. I voted with my convictions. I made what I felt was a hard, responsible decision.
A seriously flawed bill
The heart of the matter was that House Bill 78 was well-intentioned to be sure, but seriously flawed. For example, if HB 78 were to pass, the husbands, wives and children of many of our state’s foreign-born engineers at our various national labs would be at immediate risk of being deported.
HB 78 would also add a burden for all our senior citizens. New Mexico residents over 65 who wish to exchange their driver’s license for an ID card would be lumped into the same category as “illegal immigrants” and would have to go through the same bureaucratic steps to prove their legitimate residency.
The administrative cost of HB 78 remains unknown, and it still does not place us in full compliance with the Real ID Act of 2005.
On that day I did vote for a floor amendment proposed that I felt was far superior to HB 78. It narrowly failed in a 36-34 vote. Offered as bi-partisan compromise by Democratic Floor Leader Ken Martinez, D-Grants, it incorporated elements from several driver’s license bills introduced this session, including my own HB 346 and Republican Bill Rehm’s HB 261.
This compromise bill would have revoked falsely issued driver’s licenses. It would also have made it a third-degree felony for an MVD employee to issue a fraudulent license, and it would mandate a two-year expiration for any license issued to a foreign national.
The good news
I have born a great deal of criticism as a result of my vote. It is somehow assumed that I embrace the status quo and that I do not feel a legislative remedy is warranted. I have received many e-mails and letters from impassioned constituents questioning my vote and political stance.
I do not take lightly any input from my constituents. However, I am committed to the safety of our public as well as clamping down on fraud.
Immigration policy is a federal issue, and we all can acknowledge that this responsibility has not been met by our federal government. Hence we find ourselves, along with other states, grappling with the results of this abdication of responsibility.
The good news here in New Mexico is that there is still time enough in our legislative session for both parties (and the lone DTS) to come together and send a smart and effective driver’s license bill to Governor Martinez to sign.
O’Neill, a Democrat, represents District 15 in the New Mexico House.