From State Senator Andres Ayala:
Connecticut’s roads became safer and more equitable today when the State Senate passed a bill to allow Connecticut’s undocumented residents to obtain driver’s licenses. Senator Andres Ayala (D-Bridgeport) has actively supported this issue for several months before finally having the opportunity to vote in favor of it tonight.
“Allowing our undocumented neighbors to obtain a license means that we will have more safe, properly insured drivers who can take their kids to school, get themselves to work, and contribute to Connecticut’s economy,” said Senator Ayala. “By passing this bill we have only made it possible for more people to follow our laws, and as a result, all Connecticut’s drivers can now feel more confident on the roads.”
There are an estimated 54,000 undocumented drivers in Connecticut today. Current law prevents these people from being trained in proper road safety, tested to ensure their ability, and insured in the event of an accident. The bill passed tonight changes all of this. Undocumented residents will now need to apply for a driver’s license and demonstrate the same capability as all Connecticut drivers.
According to AAA, unlicensed drivers are five times more likely to be in a fatal car crash. By allowing more people to apply for licenses, the General Assembly aims to make Connecticut’s roads safer for everyone. New Mexico is one of three other states in the country that allow undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s license. Their roads have seen a substantial decrease in traffic fatalities since passing their licensing law in 2003.
Additionally, undocumented drivers will now be able to purchase car insurance, which they have been unable to do in the past. This has been to the detriment of every Connecticut resident who buys car insurance. Anyone getting in an accident with one of these drivers had to have their own insurance company absorb the costs of any damages caused by the crash. This cost is passed on to all drivers in the form of higher premiums to account for the cost of uninsured drivers on the road. The Legal Services Organization at Yale Law School projects that Connecticut policyholders will save $20 million each year when undocumented drivers are able to purchase car insurance.
The bill passed today will allow undocumented residents of Connecticut to obtain a driver’s license that can be used for driving, but not for federal identification purposes such as boarding a plane or as identification for voting. In order to obtain this license, an individual must provide the Department of Motor Vehicles with proof of their identity and residency in Connecticut.
Is insurance mandatory to get a driver’s license if you do not own a car? Maybe it should be. I agree undocumented immigrants should have to stand to the same standard I do to legally operate a motor vehicle in this state. What’s next, Nancy? Voter registration cards?
Here we go again with the tea party paranoia. There are estimated to be 11 million undocumented aliens in the US. Many have American citizen children. Even if you wanted to you couldn’t deport all of them. They are for the most part hard-working honest people just trying to get by. It is first and foremost a safety issue. There is no free ride here. They have to obtain insurance and be in the process of obtaining legal status in this country. Furthermore the license will state it can’t be used for any ID other than for operating a motor vehicle. I find it interesting the same people who are all upset about this were silent when there were loads of illegals in CT from places like eastern Europe and northern Ireland in this country.
Amazing, I have been living in another state for almost a month now and am better informed than people in CT.
Okay. Problems with illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants are not honest. They are here illegally. If they can’t get a license just drive without one. How honest is that? They ‘jumped the line.’ Someone who is trying to get here HONESTLY just got cut. Who is protecting those people? They depress the wage rate. As a Republican I love paying an illegal $20-$30 in cash to do my yard work. I am sure contractors like picking them up outside Home Depot to do labor under the table. Restaurants like getting their dishes washed on the cheap. I hope an honest, taxpaying worker from BPT doesn’t want one of those jobs. As far as illegal Europeans go, two wrongs do not make a right. Illegals drive up taxes and stress city services. They tend to pack as many people in a house as they can. A house meant to service 3-4 people may have 20 in it. That is 20 people’s worth of sewage, garbage, water, etc. This drives up city costs and taxes. If their children are citizens the kids can stay. That is their choice. Some choices are difficult. If I choose to rob a bank I may have to leave my family. If you immigrate illegally and have a kid in the US you may be forced to take your kid back with you or leave it here. YOU would have to think of these things when YOU choose to come here illegally and have a kid. But let’s make it as easy as possible to be illegal and exist here. It will help to cut down on immigration. Why bother, just jump the fence.
You are comparing these hard-working people with bank robbers and accusing them of being “dishonest.” They have broken civil laws NOT criminal ones by being here without the proper papers. All of them pay sales taxes. Many pay income and social security (which most won’t be able to collect). And the facts are there are at least 11 million here … you can’t physically kick them out. There is no easy solution, but keeping them in the shadows is just going to allow dishonest businesspeople to use them to depress wages.
You do not pay social security if you do not have a social security number. If you have a social security number you are not an undocumented worker since you have a document. If you ‘make up’ a social security number, that is yet another crime. The easy solution is–don’t come here illegally. That is just not the easy solution for the illegal immigrant. Yes, they would have to go through all the background checks and paperwork to immigrate legally. Many do not want to become citizens. They work here for a time, live as cheaply as possible, make as much as they can and go back. Since many of our jobs have dried up many are just leaving.
www .washingtonpost.com/world/mexicos-reverse-immigration/2012/07/23/gJQAadB74W_gallery.html
There is an easy solution on our end. Stop all money transfers to Mexico. Use the RICO act to seize property and finances that were acquired through an illegal enterprise (coming here illegally to work). Use that money to send the person back. If you took the profit out of illegal immigration you would stop it.
BRG, amazing? Definitely. You can pass GO and collect another $200 for being so much “better informed than people in CT.” Let us know when you are ready to answer some of the many questions you ducked when asked about topical City matters, please. Time will tell.
Once again you have liberalism rearing its ugly head. Malloy and the rest of the socialists in Hartford ruling against the majority of the people. And BRG I hope one of these illegals rear-ends you with his new license. Ha.
Doesn’t the word “ILLEGAL” mean anything? Nope, because the idiots have made it PC to use the word “undocumented.” That’s pure BS!!! Sneaking into this country and becoming an “undocumented” (read ILLEGAL) immigrant violates our sovereign borders. 99% of your readers, Lennie, would agree as those whose ancestors came here, came here LEGALLY. Most Americans today can trace their ancestry through Ellis Island. They came here legally and assimilated so their progeny would have a better life than they left behind.
TERM LIMITS!!! At ALL levels of government and for government appointees also.
I don’t want to hear illegals pay their share in taxes because they use their under-the-table pay to buy things for which a sales tax is applied. That’s true but it is not good enough. I agree, the vast vast majority of illegals are here to improve their own lives as well as the lives of the people they have left behind from wherever they have come. It is payroll taxes we need desperately. Every dollar an illegal earns without paying income tax hurts this nation and this state. They are here and they aren’t going away anytime soon. So we have to develop programs to deal with this issue right now. DeStefano issued identity cards. Malloy is giving them driver’s licenses. The identity cards allowed the illegals to obtain bank accounts. Prior to that they were carrying around large sums of cash. They were walking ATMs ready to be mugged. It happened often. No one complained to the police for obvious reasons. Now the driver’s license issue. I spent a lot of time living in Switzerland years ago. I was legal. Had a proper work visa and I had my Connecticut driver’s license which was perfectly valid and allowed me to operate a vehicle there. Do they not issue driver’s licenses from where they come from?
I have said it before over and over. The devil with regard to the illegal issue is the employer who knowingly avoids paying a payroll tax. We need that money to restore our economy. Not much being said about prosecuting employers.
You’re correct. I did not think of that. When I was in the navy my CT driver’s license and navy ID card were all I needed to rent a car except in Japan and the UK. There I had to get an international drivers license because they drive on the wrong side of the road. There really is no reason to offer special licenses to drive. The only thing is the address. The foreign and international license would show your ‘home’ address not your illegal address.
Illegal immigrants who JUST come here to work and send all their money home are de facto outsourced jobs. Except for some small sales tax that does not come anywhere close to paying the cost of the governmental worker the job they take has been outsourced to their native country.
Even if they could legally work, would they? They have no incentive to pay taxes or Social Security. With no plans to stay here why would they? The deal is something like this. Minimum wage is $10/hr. That cost the employer $10+ payroll (say that is $12/hr) tax and the worker gets $10–payroll tax that is no benefit to the worker (say that is $8 /hr). The worker agrees to work under the table for $9/hr. Making him +$1/hr and saving the employer $3/hr.
The money that gets siphoned out of our economy is a drain on our economy. All the money these people get goes straight into the economy of their home country. That is why the home country of the worker is quick to complain every time we try to fight illegal immigration. Those workers are essentially a tariff free trade imbalance in favor of the home country.