Arnold Vetoes License Bill: Latinos Vow Economic Boycott

• Originally published in The Daily News of Los Angeles September 23, 2004
  

Copyright 2004 Tower Media, Inc.  


By Harrison Sheppard, Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO - Just as he had warned, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed legislation Wednesday that would have allowed illegal immigrants to obtain California driver's licenses.

The move, which was attributed to homeland security concerns, outraged Latino activists who argued that the approximately 2 million illegal immigrants of driving age in California should be allowed to have a license to get to their jobs and bring their kids to school. A key provision sought by the governor was that licenses issued to illegal immigrants carry an identifying mark showing their status.

"One of the most important duties of the governor of a state is to protect its citizens," Schwarzenegger said in his veto message.

"Determining the true identity and history of an individual is a key component of that protection. This bill does not adequately address the security concerns that my Department of Homeland Security and I have, and I cannot support it."

Political leaders of the Latino community were furious after the veto, saying the governor had given public assurances he would sign such legislation into law when they agreed shortly after he took office last year to repeal legislation former Gov. Gray Davis had signed into law during the recall campaign. That measure lacked virtually any security safeguards, while the one vetoed by Schwarzenegger contained a number of provisions intended to answer critics.

"He's basically got a war, a social war, on his hands with the Latino community," said Nativo Lopez, president of the Mexican American Political Association. "Because he's absolutely demonstrated that he's not a man of his word.

"In our culture, once you give a person your word, that's your contract, your bond. When you go back on that, you're essentially a worthless human being and that's what he's demonstrated to our community."

Lopez said he expects to organize economic boycotts by the Latino community throughout the state. He compared it to efforts such as recent economic protests over the use of the Confederate flag at the state Capitol in Georgia.

Last year, when he was running for governor in the recall election, Schwarzenegger promised to repeal a new law that gave illegal immigrants in California the opportunity to apply for a driver's license. But he also promised to support restoring it if a new license was designed that addresses security concerns.

The Legislature complied with a repeal shortly after he took office. The bill's author, Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, then designed a new measure incorporating background checks as well as steps to encourage illegal immigrants to apply for citizenship.

But Schwarzenegger said the new bill still fails to provide adequate checks to ensure that licenses are not misused as "breeder documents," which help people obtain other identification documents.

For example, he said, it is difficult to ensure that background information provided by other countries was reliable.

One of the key disputes with Cedillo was Schwarzenegger's insistence that the license bear a distinctive mark to identify the bearer as an illegal immigrant. That provision was a deal-breaker to Cedillo, who said it would brand people and make them less likely to get the license.

Schwarzenegger said the mark is necessary to ensure that the person does not use the license for identification purposes beyond driving.

Mike Spence, head of the conservative grass-roots group California Republican Assembly and its offshoot, Save Our License, was pleased with the veto. Spence and his group oppose illegal immigrants obtaining driver's licenses under any circumstance.

"In reality, they can never have the kind of security precautions we would need," Spence said. "But if Cedillo really wanted to do that, he could have made a deal with the governor. What he wants is a document people can use to vote and say they're here legally - the end goal is amnesty, not driving."

Save Our License received the go-ahead Wednesday to begin collecting signatures on an initiative to outlaw driver's licenses for illegal immigrants.

The group must collect 600,000 valid signatures to qualify it for the ballot, and expects to promote it with direct mail and paid signature-gatherers.

Cedillo plans to return with a new driver's license bill when the Legislature reconvenes in December, according to an aide.

Edward Headington, a spokesman for Cedillo, said the governor never made an effort to work with the senator or make his own counterproposals, and spoke in generalities when he promised to restore the law but didn't match them with action.

"I think the governor certainly has a gift for fiction," Headington said. "I think the governor needs to be held accountable.

"And if he is the political action hero that his team projects him to be, then his actions need to match his words. Today seems to be an example of the governor playing into the politics of fear, not of sound policy."

The measure was Assembly Bill 2895.

Staff Writer David M. Drucker contributed to this report.