Photo: Harvey Finkle
While happiness is undoubtedly the only possible response to the new California drivers license law, one can’t help asking whether there is potentially a dark cloud behind California’s sunshine. To take advantage of the new law, undocumented immigrants must, of course, register with the state, thereby informing them of their exact residence address. Not only that, but the person applying for a drivers license must sign a statement under penalty of perjury that “he or she is both ineligible for a social security number and unable to submit satisfactory proof that his or her presence in the United States is authorized under federal law ….”
That would be a clear statement under penalty of perjury that the drivers license applicant admits they know they are unlawfully in this country. What may the consequences be if the political climate shifts again, as it has in the past, and becomes more hostile to Latinos without documents?
While the government is, at least for now, offering drivers licenses to people, we certainly have to keep fighting not just to hold onto these laws for a path to citizenship and one that doesn’t involve waiting lists that stretch out for decades.
