Colorado Governor Jared Polis is expected to sign a bill passed by the state senate earlier this month that will more than triple the number of Department of Motor Vehicles offices that process and issue first-time driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrant residents in the state.
Colorado has already issued nearly 60,000 such driver’s licenses, but only three offices currently process first-time applications, forcing immigrants to wait months for an appointment. Others have had to travel hundreds of miles to an office. Appointments have been so much in demand that people were actually booking up slots to sell to immigrants.
“People will buy appointments and sell them for $500 to undocumented people,” Kyle Huelsman of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition told the Colorado Independent in January. High Plains Public Radio reports some slots being sold for as high as $1,000. “We have addressed this through legislation, making it illegal, but it’s difficult to track,” he continued. “The black market continues to exist.”
The legislation will expand the number of offices to 10, and when driving without a license has led to arrest by federal immigration agents of some immigrants, this bill will help keep families together. “You can work and take your kids to the park without fear,” one resident told the Colorado Independent. She asked that her name not be shared due to her immigration status.
Colorado isn’t the only state to recently pass pro-immigrant legislation. Just days ago, Arkansas passed two bills that will make nursing licenses and in-state tuition rates available to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients. In New York state, a bill allowing undocumented youth to access state financial aid was also signed into law. Advocates had been fighting for years to pass it.
Advocates in other states are upping their efforts following the election of a number of Democratic governors. In Wisconsin last month, hundreds “gathered in the Capitol’s halls ... to lobby lawmakers in favor of Gov. Tony Evers’ proposal to allow undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses.”
Advocates are also pressing for action on driver’s license legislation in New Jersey and in New York, where a bill “has been consistently stymied in Albany … but immigrants and some lawmakers are hoping this is the year it will be passed, boosted by a newly Democratic Senate and [Gov. Andrew Cuomo's] pledge to sign it should lawmakers approve,” the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported. “Those who rallied Tuesday made clear they intend to hold Cuomo to that promise.”