Bill O'Neill
We obviously have a major problem with people taking advantage of this progressive and well-intended law. It is a problem of fraud, and it needs to be acknowledged and solved.
Once again I find myself in the middle of one of our most contentious issues: what to do about the 2003 law that permits the issuing of driver’s licenses to foreign nationals who cannot verify their legal status in New Mexico. Once again I am struck by how the debate dominates local television, newspapers, opinion pages – and of course, the governor’s current legislative agenda.
First of all, I would like to point out that I was not in the state Legislature in 2003. This is an issue that I have approached with a fairly objective mindset, having no part in the legislation’s origin. I believe that even the fiercest opponents would concede that the law’s public safety intent was legitimate: to provide the ability for foreign nationals to attain car insurance, and in the process reduce one of the nation’s highest uninsured motorist rates, as well as make sure that these same individuals were in a data bank that could be used by law enforcement officials when warranted.
But we obviously have a major problem with people taking advantage of this progressive and well-intended law, as documented in various media accounts and, most importantly to me, through first-hand anecdotes from my District 15 constituents. Individuals can come to New Mexico to attain these licenses under fraudulent means, and then leave the state, or traffic in these bogus documents, and so on.
It is a problem of fraud, and it needs to be acknowledged and solved.
New Mexicans want this problem solved
Last week, I introduced House Bill 171, which repeals the 2003 law and substitutes instead a provisional license for these same foreign nationals who do not have a social security number. With this license they can still secure car insurance and lawfully drive themselves to work, or to church, or to school to pick up their children. The provision license cannot, however, be used to travel outside of New Mexico. This license would have no validity outside of our state borders.
Thus, the fraud problem is immediately solved: People would not come to New Mexico to attain a license that would have no validity in other states. At the same time, the sensible policy of having these individuals insured on our highways would be preserved.
Let us now talk politics, as this is really how the issue is playing out. A variation of this same provisional license approach has been introduced over the past two sessions by three of my House Republican colleagues, who, like many of us here, want simply to solve this problem and move on the many other important issues facing New Mexico.
I find it curious that Governor Susana Martinez adamantly opposes the provisional license approach and has promised to veto such a compromise. She is often quoted as saying that “74 percent of New Mexicans support my bill to repeal the current license law.” I would suggest that she is wrong, that 74 percent of New Mexicans want this problem solved, effectively and immediately, and that they are leaving the specifics of that up to us, the legislators and the executive branch.
Where are we without compromise?
Over the past several months, I have had the opportunity to walk my district, to address neighborhood meetings, and answer e-mails and phone calls. When I explain my opposition to the severely flawed, Arizona-style Martinez solution to this problem, my overriding sense is that your average voter understands that I, as a legislator, can only vote on the specifics of the bill in front of me. The details matter, and ultimately I am forced to vote on the text of a bill rather than its intent.
The Martinez-backed bill, House Bill 103, sponsored by State Rep. Andy Nuñez, is bad legislation. First of all, it completely ignores the problem that we are trying to solve – what to do about the roughly 85,000 foreign nationals in our state who would not qualify for any kind of legitimate driving privileges under the criteria it proposes. In addition, it remains an open question whether it would in fact bring us into compliance with the Real ID Act, which only a handful of states have chosen to pursue. It does not acknowledge that a driver’s license is not an invitation to citizenship – rather, it is an obligation that we insist upon as a community for our own public safety reasons.
In fairness, in the absence of federal leadership on the illegal immigration issue, states like New Mexico are forced to come up with their own solutions. In that light, my HB 171 is very close to the provisional license bill that was recently implemented in Utah.
I also believe that the governor is sincere in her belief that her approach is the best way to solve the problem. But I am troubled by the complete absence of any willingness on her end to compromise on this important issue. Where are we, in terms of being able to govern effectively, without compromise?
Our constituents do not want issues like these used for political gain. Such a route requires at least some degree of willingness to engage in meaningful dialogue, which means that people on both sides have to make concessions, in the interest of resolving the problem at hand.
I urge both sides – immigrant rights activists as well as Republican opponents – to be willing to tackle the problem with true compromise in the interest of good public policy for all New Mexicans.
O’Neill, a Democrat, represents the Albuquerque-area District 15 in the N.M. House of Representatives.