{"id":123311,"date":"2016-02-04T14:15:28","date_gmt":"2016-02-04T21:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=123311"},"modified":"2016-02-05T09:32:28","modified_gmt":"2016-02-05T16:32:28","slug":"kudos-to-dems-for-dropping-battle-over-semantics-in-drivers-license-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/02\/kudos-to-dems-for-dropping-battle-over-semantics-in-drivers-license-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Kudos to Dems for dropping battle over semantics in driver’s license debate"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>

Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p>

It doesn’t matter whether we call the driving option for people who don’t prove citizenship or legal status a license or a privilege card, Heath Haussamen writes. Let’s move on to more substantive issues.<\/p><\/div>\n

COMMENTARY:<\/strong>\u00a0Most policymakers in Santa Fe have, in principle, agreed to compromise on\u00a0adopting\u00a0a two-tier system for licensing people to drive in New Mexico. That would give\u00a0most New Mexicans licenses that comply with the federal REAL ID Act<\/a> while still providing a way for those who don’t prove citizenship or legal status a way to continue driving on our roads legally<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But until this week,\u00a0Democrats and Republicans\u00a0continued battling over semantics. Most notably, would we call the second-tier option, which isn’t REAL ID compliant and would be for people who don’t prove legal status, a driver’s license or a driving privilege card?<\/p>\n

\"Heath<\/a>

Heath Haussamen<\/p><\/div>\n

The difference? There isn’t one. What’s matters\u00a0are\u00a0the details: Who is eligible for the second-tier option? What qualifications would they have to meet? What we call the card they’re issued by the state’s Motor Vehicle Division\u00a0is irrelevant.<\/p>\n

Except, perhaps, for political reasons. Gov. Susana Martinez pledged\u00a0for years to repeal the law that allows immigrants without legal status to obtain driver’s licenses. Now she’s given up that fight, and she should get credit for compromising. But she has continued to insist\u00a0on calling the second-tier option a driving\u00a0card instead of a license.<\/p>\n

I\u00a0assume that’s because\u00a0she wants to be able to\u00a0say she succeeded in taking licenses from people without legal status. Martinez\u00a0may get away with that spin. I’ve complained before about how successful\u00a0her people are at making their propaganda\u00a0the air we breathe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rhetoric aside, the truth is that Martinez is agreeing to let\u00a0immigrants without legal status drive on New Mexico roads legally — which is what she had promised for years to stop.<\/p>\n

Her willingness to compromise is\u00a0positive. Coming up with a two-tier licensure system was the only real way forward.<\/p>\n

If a Tuesday Senate committee meeting is any indication, Democrats have dropped the\u00a0battle over semantics. By approving an amended version of\u00a0House Bill 99<\/a>, sponsored by Rep. Paul Pacheco, R-Albuquerque, Senate Democrats “seem to have given in” on this point, The Santa Fe New Mexican<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

As amended, the legislation now calls the second-tier option a “driving authorization card.”<\/p>\n

Fine. That\u00a0was a meaningless\u00a0fight that distracted from important issues. Among the substantive questions still being debated:\u00a0Would people have to renew driving cards annually or every two years? Would they have to be fingerprinted to get a driving\u00a0card?<\/p>\n

I’m glad to see Senate Democrats focusing on serious points\u00a0instead of the political battle. I hope the governor does too.<\/p>\n

Because there are other important\u00a0issues\u00a0that haven’t gotten as much attention from policymakers.\u00a0For example,\u00a0Pacheco’s bill would require people who apply for a driving card\u00a0to prove that they’ve lived in New Mexico for two years or filed a state tax return in the prior year.<\/p>\n

That is a much stricter requirement than it takes to get a driving\u00a0card in Utah<\/a> — whose system New Mexico Republicans are comparing with\u00a0Pacheco’s bill. It’s fair to question whether the requirements in Pacheco’s bill are so strict that they could result in immigrants who currently have licenses losing their ability to drive legally in New Mexico.<\/p>\n

The requirement that people prove two years of New Mexico residency or that they filed tax returns in the state the prior year would also discourage new immigrants without legal status from coming to New Mexico. They could go to some other states and become licensed to drive\u00a0immediately, whereas here they’d have to spend 1-2 years getting around without legal authorization to drive.<\/p>\n

And immigrants without legal status aren’t the only people who want driving cards instead of REAL ID compliant licenses. Some oppose giving the government as much personal information as REAL ID requires, or they just have no need to go through the hassle. In Vermont, 40,000 people got privilege cards in 2014 and 2015 — much more than the state’s “estimated 1,500 migrant population the cards were designed to serve,” according to the news organization VTDigger.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

American citizens and legal residents who are considering moving to New Mexico but\u00a0don’t want REAL ID cards\u00a0might be discouraged if they have to live here long enough to file state tax returns\u00a0before they can get driving cards.<\/p>\n

These issues are getting little attention. They deserve much more scrutiny than\u00a0whether we call it a driver’s license or a driving\u00a0card.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It doesn’t matter whether we call the driving option for people who don’t prove citizenship or legal status a license or a privilege card, Heath Haussamen writes. Let’s move on to more substantive issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55852,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,10],"tags":[3250,140,270,2235,107,116],"class_list":["post-123311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-2016-legislative-session","tag-border-and-immigration","tag-drivers-licenses","tag-national-security","tag-roundhouse","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}