SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - Following months of uncertainty and heated partisan exchanges, a GOP-sponsored bill that would make New Mexico compliant under the federal REAL ID Act and allow some allow immigrants to obtain driver’s permit cards cleared its first hurdle Thursday after a heated meeting.
The proposal passed 4-3 in the House Regulatory and Public Affairs Committee along party lines following a nearly three-hour meeting that saw charges of racism from immigrant advocates and one supporter invoking the Sept. 11.
It was the first of at least two proposals state lawmakers are examining this session to get New Mexico in compliance with the federal requirements of proof of legal U.S. residency for holders who want to use state IDs for federal purposes.
New Mexico has no such requirement, and allows immigrants who are in the country illegally to obtain state’s driver’s licenses.
Previous attempts to repeal the state’s immigrant driver’s license law have been met with charges of racism, angry committee meetings and one lawmaker comparing the REAL ID Act to the Holocaust.
“It is a compromise bill,” said Rep. Paul Pacheco, R-Albuquerque, a co-sponsor of the House proposal. “I feel this compromise will settle and solve those problems.”
But around two dozen immigrant advocates and their allies spoke out against the bill during a House Regulatory and Public Affairs Committee meeting. Many said it would open the door for discrimination.
“It’s anti-immigrant and racist,” Bartolo Canales of the Santa Fe-based advocacy group Somos Un Pueblo Unido told committee members in Spanish. He said if immigrants could no longer get driver’s licenses, their children would be the ones to suffer.
Marcela Diaz, executive director of group Somos Un Pueblo Unido, said her group opposes anything that puts “scarlet letters” on driver’s cards.
“Anything that doesn’t allow immigrants to keep their driver’s licenses is unacceptable to us,” said
She favors other proposals like one sponsored by Senate Democrats that would create a “two tier” system - granting REAL ID-compliant licenses to residents and noncompliant ones to any resident who wants them. The Senate has not scheduled a committee hearing on that bill yet.
Meanwhile, business leaders spoke out in favor of the bill and said it would end uncertainty.
“This is a fair compromise,” Mike Puelle, CEO of the Associated General Contractors New Mexico. “Contractors could lose out on business with federal agencies if this isn’t resolved.”
Sherman McCorkle, president and CEO of Technology Ventures Corporation, urged lawmakers to move the proposal out of committee and said the terrorists in the Sept. 11 attacks had legal driver’s licenses - comparison that drew jeers from some advocates.
The bill now moves to the House Judiciary Committee.
At the start of the legislative session Tuesday, immigrant advocates held signs outside the Capitol comparing Gov. Susana Martinez, a Republican, to GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump, a candidate who has come under criticism for his comments about Mexican immigrants.
Diaz said Martinez is “pushing an anti-immigrant agenda” because she previously wanted to block immigrants in the U.S. illegally from getting driver’s licenses and now backs the House bill.
But Martinez, the nation’s only Latina governor, remains one of the few elected Republicans who have publicly denounced Trump for his remarks.
The REAL ID issue took even more immediacy in the state this week after the U.S. Defense Department announced military installations would no longer accept New Mexico driver’s licenses as proof of identification for entrance. The U.S. Homeland Security Department also said beginning in 2018, noncompliant IDs won’t be accepted to board commercial flights.
Martinez said she hoped lawmakers could come to a compromise and finally put the issue to rest.
“We have a good compromise bill that solves the problem and stops giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, and I hope the Senate Democrats will support it,” Martinez said.
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Follow Russell Contreras on Twitter at https://twitter.com/russcontreras . His work can be found at https://bigstory.ap.org/content/russell-contreras
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