Immigrants protest over driving licenses
By John Ramirez
New York
On Dec. 15, the New York Coalition for Immigrants' Rights to
Drivers' Licenses held a demonstration in response to New York
Governor George Pataki and the Department of Motor Vehicle's
(DMV) policy of denying drivers' licenses based on immigration
status.
A crowd of over 100 immigrants with some supporters braved
below-freezing temperatures in front of Pataki's Man hat tan
office on Third Ave. They demanded, "Driving licenses now!" and
"Sin licencia no hay trabajo!" ("No work without licenses!") as
well as other chants in Spanish. Most of the crowd were Latin@
immigrants, mainly Mexicans. Koreans chanted in their own
language. Arabs and South Asians were also in the crowd, along
with other nationalities.
The groups that responded to this call included New York
City Participation Project, New York Immigration Coalition,
Asociación Mexico-Americana de Tra baja dores, Taxi
Workers Alliance, Espe ranza del Barrio, YKASEC and others.
New York State had already sent letters to thousands of
immigrants threatening to suspend their licenses if they were
unable to verify their Social Security number. This is a new
attack against immigrants. Current law does not require a
particular immigration status for obtaining a license. This new
measure will affect over 300,000 immigrant workers having a
variety of immigration statuses, and some 6,000 were already
involved. The struggle in the streets complements a struggle
already started in the courts.
This attack on immigrants appears to be directed from the
rightwing at the national level. It parallels the prominent
attacks in California by "Governator" Arnold Schwarzenegger,
who repealed a measure allowing drivers' licenses for
immigrants. The U.S. Senate has passed legislation mandating
the Department of Homeland Security to regulate the
documentation needed for obtaining a driver's license, and
requiring licenses to be "machine readable."
This last step is part of an apparent move towards a
national identification card. It follows the disclosure by
Director Tom Ridge in May 2002 that the Bush administration was
studying how driving licenses could be used to expose "aliens"
who overstay their visas.
Reprinted from the Dec. 30, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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