New bill targets illegals’ use of driver’s licenses

The House Judiciary Committee chairman introduced a bill to clamp down on illegal aliens’ use of driver’s licenses and to give judges more discretion to deny claims of asylum, beginning the new Congress’ first fight over immigration.

Hours after President Bush called for action on his guest-worker program, which would give illegal aliens now in the country temporary legal status, Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. introduced a bill to clamp down on illegal aliens’ ability to live and work under the radar by restricting their ability to obtain and use driver’s licenses.

“American citizens have the right to know who is in their country, that people are who they say they are and that the name on the driver’s license is the real holder’s name, not some alias,” said Mr. Sensenbrenner, Wisconsin Republican.

“The 9/11 hijackers could have used their passports to board the plane, but only one did. And why was that? Those murderers chose our driver’s licenses and state IDs as a form of identification because these documents allowed them to blend in and not raise suspicion or concern,” he said.

Even as that legislative fight was brewing, another battle was joined over funding for immigration security.

Mr. Sensenbrenner and four other House committee chairmen sent a letter calling on Mr. Bush to change his mind and fully fund the 2,000 new U.S. Border Patrol agents called for in the intelligence overhaul bill that Mr. Bush signed into law last month.

The letter followed comments this week by departing Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, who said Mr. Bush will fall short of that goal in the budget he will propose next month.

Mr. Sensenbrenner’s new bill includes four of the provisions that he fought for but which were dropped from the final intelligence overhaul bill last month.

The bill would fill a gap in the fence on the U.S.-Mexico border near San Diego, would extend the law so that terrorism-related grounds for excluding someone from entering the United States also become grounds for deportation for those already here and would revamp the asylum system to make it easier for judges to deny a claim for asylum.

But its major focus is to crack down on illegal aliens’ ability to obtain and use driver’s licenses.

The measure requires that any driver’s license used as a form of identification to a federal official, such as a Transportation Security Administration screener at an airport, meet national standards that include a check on whether the holder is in the country legally.

The bill doesn’t force states to change their laws, but makes driver’s licenses from such states inadmissible for federal identification purposes.

The bill has 114 Republican co-sponsors and one Democrat, Rep. Lincoln Davis of Tennessee.

Sen. Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican, will introduce a similar bill in the Senate, although his spokesman said they are still working on the exact language of his version.

Meanwhile, Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, Virginia Republican and chairman of the Government Reform Committee, announced his own stand-alone bill yesterday just on the driver’s licenses. Mr. Davis said he supports Mr. Sensenbrenner’s bill, but wants to see a specific vote just on the driver’s license issue.

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