{"id":35870,"date":"2012-01-30T06:18:12","date_gmt":"2012-01-30T13:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=35870"},"modified":"2012-01-30T06:18:17","modified_gmt":"2012-01-30T13:18:17","slug":"urging-both-sides-to-compromise-on-driver%e2%80%99s-license-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2012\/01\/urging-both-sides-to-compromise-on-driver%e2%80%99s-license-issue\/","title":{"rendered":"Urging both sides to compromise on driver\u2019s license issue"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bill<\/a>

Bill O'Neill<\/p><\/div>\n

We obviously have a major problem with people taking advantage of this progressive and\u00a0well-intended law. It is a problem of fraud, and it needs to be\u00a0acknowledged and solved.<\/h4>\n

Once\u00a0again I find myself in the middle of one of our most contentious issues: what to do about the 2003 law that permits the\u00a0issuing of driver\u2019s licenses to foreign nationals\u00a0who cannot\u00a0verify their legal status in\u00a0New Mexico. Once again I am struck by how the debate dominates\u00a0local television, newspapers, opinion pages \u2013 and of course, the governor\u2019s\u00a0current legislative agenda.<\/p>\n

First of all,\u00a0I would like to point\u00a0out\u00a0that I was not in the state Legislature in 2003. This is an issue that I have approached with a fairly objective mindset,\u00a0having no part in the legislation\u2019s origin. I believe\u00a0that even the fiercest opponents would concede that the law\u2019s public safety intent was legitimate: to\u00a0provide the ability for foreign nationals to\u00a0attain car insurance,\u00a0and in the process reduce one of the nation\u2019s highest uninsured motorist rates, as well as\u00a0make sure that these same individuals were in a data bank that could be used by law enforcement officials when warranted.<\/p>\n

But we obviously have a major problem with people taking advantage of this progressive and\u00a0well-intended law, as documented in\u00a0various media accounts and,\u00a0most importantly to me, through first-hand anecdotes from my District 15 constituents. Individuals can come to New Mexico to attain these licenses\u00a0under fraudulent means, and then leave the state,\u00a0or traffic in these bogus documents, and so on.<\/p>\n

It is a problem of fraud, and it needs to be\u00a0acknowledged and solved.<\/p>\n

New Mexicans want this problem solved<\/h3>\n

Last week, I introduced House Bill 171<\/a>,\u00a0which repeals the\u00a02003 law and substitutes instead a provisional license for these same foreign nationals who do not have a social security number.\u00a0With this license they can still\u00a0secure car insurance and lawfully drive themselves to work, or to church, or to school to pick\u00a0up their children.\u00a0The provision license cannot, however, be used to travel outside of New Mexico. This license would\u00a0have no validity outside of our state borders.<\/p>\n

Thus, the fraud problem is\u00a0immediately solved:\u00a0People would not come to\u00a0New Mexico to attain a license that would have no validity in other states. At the same time, the sensible policy of\u00a0having these individuals insured on our highways would be preserved.<\/p>\n

Let us now talk politics, as this is really how the issue is playing out.\u00a0A variation of\u00a0this same provisional license approach has been introduced over the past\u00a0two sessions by three of my House Republican\u00a0colleagues, who, like many of us here, want simply to solve this problem and move on\u00a0the many other important issues facing\u00a0New Mexico.<\/p>\n

I find it curious that Governor Susana Martinez<\/a> adamantly\u00a0opposes the provisional license approach and has\u00a0promised to veto such a compromise. She is often quoted as saying that \u201c74 percent of New Mexicans\u00a0support my bill to\u00a0repeal the current license law.\u201d I would suggest that she is wrong, that\u00a074 percent of New Mexicans want this problem solved, effectively and immediately, and that they\u00a0are leaving the specifics of that up to us, the legislators and the executive branch.<\/p>\n

Where are we without compromise?<\/h3>\n

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\u00a0solution to this problem, my overriding sense is that\u00a0your average voter understands that I, as a legislator, can only vote on\u00a0the specifics of the bill in front of me. The\u00a0details matter, and ultimately I am forced to vote on the text of a bill rather than its intent.<\/p>\n

The Martinez-backed\u00a0bill, House Bill 103<\/a>, sponsored by State Rep. Andy Nu\u00f1ez<\/a>, is bad legislation. First of all,\u00a0it completely ignores the problem that we are trying to solve \u2013 what to do about the roughly 85,000\u00a0foreign nationals in our\u00a0state who would not qualify for any kind of legitimate driving privileges\u00a0under the criteria it proposes. In addition, it remains an open question whether it would in fact bring us\u00a0into compliance with the\u00a0Real ID Act<\/a>, which only a handful of states have chosen to pursue. It does not acknowledge that a driver\u2019s license is not an invitation to citizenship \u2013 rather, it is an obligation that we insist upon as a community for our own public safety reasons.<\/p>\n

In fairness, in the absence of federal\u00a0leadership on the illegal\u00a0immigration issue, states like New Mexico are forced to come up\u00a0with their own solutions. In that light, my HB 171\u00a0is very close to\u00a0the provisional license bill that was recently implemented in Utah.<\/p>\n

I also believe that the governor is\u00a0sincere in her belief that her approach is the best way to solve the problem. But I am troubled by the\u00a0complete absence of any willingness on her end to compromise on this important issue. Where are we, in terms of being able to govern\u00a0effectively, without compromise?<\/p>\n

Our constituents do not want issues like these used for political gain. Such a route requires at least\u00a0some degree of willingness to engage in\u00a0meaningful dialogue, which means that people on both sides have to make concessions, in the interest of resolving the problem at hand.<\/p>\n

I urge both sides \u2013 immigrant rights activists as well as Republican opponents \u2013 to be willing to tackle the problem with true compromise in the interest of good public policy for all New Mexicans.<\/p>\n

\u00a0O\u2019Neill<\/a>, a Democrat, represents the Albuquerque-area District 15 in the N.M. House of Representatives.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2066,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16],"tags":[140,142,107],"class_list":["post-35870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","tag-border-and-immigration","tag-crime","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35870","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\/2066"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35870\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}