Late on the last night of the legislative session, California lawmakers passed a bill allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain driver's licenses. If the bill is signed by the governor, it will be an important and long-overdue step forward that will enhance public safety.
In the News
LA Times: Latino Caucus Head Denounces Recall Threats Over Gun Bills
By: Patrick McGreevy
SACRAMENTO -- A group of activists representing gun owners said Thursday that they may launch recall campaigns against a handful of Democratic lawmakers, including Assembly Speaker John Pérez (D-Los Angeles), over the passage of several gun-control laws this year.
CNN: New California law gives undocumented immigrants driver's licenses
By: Jaqueline Hurtado & Catherine E. Schoichet
Los Angeles - It was a moment Jose Diaz knew he didn't want to miss.
The day laborer and undocumented immigrant waited for more than 10 years to see it.
"I missed work today," he said, "but I felt like I had to be here."
Diaz was in the crowd cheering after California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law Thursday that will allow undocumented immigrants to get driver's licenses in his state.
LA Times: California grows up about immigrant driver's licenses
By: Michael Hiltzik
It isn't often that someone can overturn two decades of stupidity with a stroke of a pen. California Gov. Jerry Brown achieved that distinction this week when he signed a law allowing undocumented immigrants to apply for driver's licenses.
In doing so, he rectified a historic injustice. If that's not enough for you, consider that he saved us all money.
NY Times: California Gives Expanded Rights to Noncitizens
By: Jennifer Medina
LOS ANGELES — California is challenging the historic status of American citizenship with measures to permit noncitizens to sit on juries and monitor polls for elections in which they cannot vote and to open the practice of law even to those here illegally. It is the leading edge of a national trend that includes granting drivers’ licenses and in-state tuition to illegal immigrants in some states and that suggests legal residency could evolve into an appealing option should immigration legislation fail to produce a path to citizenship.
New America Media: Sergio Garcia: In Defense of the American Dream
By: Sergio Garcia
LA Times: Driver's licenses for all
By: The Times Editorial Board
UT San Diego: Lawmakers Expand Immigrant Rights
By: Michael Gardner
SACRAMENTO — California Democrats this year advanced an aggressive agenda to expand immigrant rights with support from a handful of Republicans intent on rebuilding the party’s image among Latinos that has suffered ever since the ferocious fight over Proposition 187 nearly two decades ago.
Sacramento Bee: Bucking Congress, California Legislature fortifies immigrant rights
By: Jeremy White
Congress may be moving slowly on plans to rewrite the nation’s immigration policy, but California lawmakers weren’t waiting this year as they pushed a raft of legislation aimed at expanding rights for noncitizens of all sorts.
As the 2013 legislative session concluded Thursday, lawmakers put forward a series of bills to extend new privileges, some of which had been sought for years, to the state’s largest-in-the-nation population of undocumented immigrants.
Sacramento Bee: California lawmakers approve measure to allow driver's licenses for illegal immigrants
By: Christopher Cadelago & Jeremy White
In the waning hours of the 2013 legislative session, the Assembly on Thursday sent Gov. Jerry Brown a bill allowing undocumented immigrants to receive driver’s licenses.
The surprise 55-19 vote moved California a signature away from putting into law a measure that immigrant advocates have sought fruitlessly for years, with past attempts thwarted by legislative vote and gubernatorial veto.
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