American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico

NM won’t provide driver’s license data to Trump administration

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The state of New Mexico will not provide driver’s license data to the Trump administration. The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the Trump administration asked states to provide driver’s license information data in another effort to get citizenship data. The administration sought to get the information through the 2020 Census for use in redistricting in 2021, but lost a court battle over adding a question to the decennial census. According to the AP, at least 13 states have denied the Trump administration’s request, 17 others are still deciding and 17 states haven’t received a request yet, while three states did not respond to questions. A spokeswoman for the governor’s office told NM Political Report about the decision on Tuesday after she spoke with the state Taxation and Revenue Department, which oversees the state’s driver’s license program.

REAL ID

Gov signed the REAL ID bill, so what’s next?

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When state lawmakers last month passed a bill establishing a two-tier driver’s license system in New Mexico, many congratulated themselves for ending a years-long, contentious debate over driver’s licenses for immigrants who are in the country illegally. Gov. Susana Martinez made similar remarks on Tuesday when she signed the legislation, which will go into effect July 1. But perhaps the key reason the Legislature passed the bill this year was to comply with a controversial federal law passed 11 years ago in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001. Largely absent from the discussion was how compliance with various provisions in the law will impact New Mexico in future years. The Real ID Act gives national standards on state identification cards in an effort to crackdown on fraud and identity theft.

Demesia Padilla

Guv signs driver’s license bill into law

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Gov. Susana Martinez signed the driver’s license bill into law Tuesday afternoon at a self-congratulatory press conference at the Albuquerque Sunport. The bill will bring the state into compliance with the federal Real ID Act. In brief remarks that lasted only a couple of minutes, Martinez said no less than three times that the law will end New Mexico’s practice of allowing driver’s licenses for those who are in the country illegally. At one point she outlined how that practice will actually change. “Under this bill no illegal immigrant can get a driver’s license,” Martinez said.

Driver's licenses

Guv asks for Real ID waiver

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Following passage of a bill during the recent legislative session to meet requirements of the federal Real ID Act, Gov. Susana Martinez has since applied for a waiver from the federal law. The Associated Press reports that Martinez formally requested a waiver for New Mexico from federal Homeland Security Department Deputy Secretary Alejando Mayorkas. Martinez told reporters last week that she would be doing so during her upcoming trip to Washington DC. Because of the state’s failure to make progress towards meeting Real ID standards, New Mexico driver’s licenses currently aren’t accepted as entrance to some federal facilities. Homeland Security warned that continued failure would mean its driver’s licenses won’t be able to be used in airports in two years.

NM Legislature

Driver’s license compromise sails through Senate

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Just one day after hammering out a compromise in a key committee, the full Senate overwhelmingly passed the compromise bill, sending it to the House. The legislation is now just one vote from the House away from heading to the governor’s desk. The original sponsors of the bill from the House indicated Friday night the House would support the legislation and Gov. Susana Martinez said that she would support and sign the bill “as is.”

Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, and Senate Minority Leader Stuart Ingle, R-Portales, presented the legislation on the Senate floor late Saturday afternoon as a hard-fought compromise. “We’ve gone five straight years of doing the same thing and people trying to get different results,” Smith said. Ingle said he understands everybody may not be happy with the bill.

Driver's licenses

Advocates, Dems say no to driver’s license fingerprints

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Domestic abuse victim advocate groups and Democratic lawmakers met on Thursday to speak out against fingerprints and background checks in driver’s license legislation preferred by the House. Sheila Lewis, director of  the victim advocacy group Santa Fe Safe, said background checks and fingerprinting for driver’s licenses may affect how some undocumented immigrants decide to report domestic abuse. “As we work to eliminate violence in the home we should not institute policies that restrict survivors’ ability to obtain a license that can help them get an order of protection against an abuser,” Lewis said. Lewis went on to say that background checks and fingerprint requirements would create “an additional barrier, and an unnecessary barrier” for some immigrants. Democratic legislators also testified against the fingerprinting provision.

Featured

Sometimes, bills in NM take years to finally pass

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The issue of driver’s licenses and who in New Mexico should be able to have them is a long-running topic in the New Mexico Legislature. Indications say, an agreement should happen this year thanks to pressure from the federal government. However, it is only one such issue with a long and winding road towards passage. Many lawmakers in the Roundhouse agree that it is common for bills to see years of debates, years of committee assignments and years of failure before they make it to the fourth floor and the Governor can sign them into law. A number of current laws have spent years being fine-tuned and changed in order to gain more traction.

REAL ID

Driver’s license bill moves forward after large amendment

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After a marathon hearing, the Senate Public Affairs Committee advanced a driver’s license bill that supporters hope will finally end the problem the state has been facing for years. It didn’t come without controversy, in the form of an extensive amendment to the bill that passed the House, HB 99, to make it essentially a Senate bill, SB 256. It was not a committee substitute, which would require it to go back through committees in the House. But with an amendment, if it were to pass the Senate, then the House and Senate could have a conference committee to work out the differences between the two versions. The SPAC amendment passed on a party-line vote, with Democrats voting for it and Republicans against.

REAL ID

Leave driver’s licenses alone; issue an optional REAL ID card

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Pete Campos is a Democrat who represents Senate District 8. Lost amid the confusion, frustration and posturing regarding the federal government’s mandates for state driver’s licenses is an obvious solution:  create a REAL ID card for those New Mexicans who want it and who qualify for it and keep the debate over driver’s licenses for immigrants separate. No one is happy with the federal government’s decision to change the requirements to board an airplane just to fly from Albuquerque to Denver.  But, we all want a safe and secure country, and we recognize that the changes are the result of the investigation into how terrorists managed to board airplanes on September 11, 2001. It’s our job now to do what we can to help New Mexicans get the documents they need to travel by air.

2016 Legislative Session

House votes to add more crimes to three strikes law

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A House bill aimed at creating a driving privilege card for immigrants without legal documentation, passed the House after almost three hours of debate and an attempt to replace it. Rep. Paul Pacheco, R-Albuquerque, presented his driver’s license bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Andy Nuñez, R-Hatch, to the House floor and faced a lengthy debate,mostly by Democrats who opposed the legislation. Rep. Miguel Garcia, D-Albuquerque, argued that, if passed, the bill would encourage discriminatory practices by law enforcement agencies and the Motor Vehicle Division. Pacheco said he had no intention of discriminating against anyone and that his bill was focused on public safety. He said he listened, for years, to arguments that undocumented immigrants need the ability to legally drive.