Indiana News
Indiana bills would give undocumented immigrants driving cards
Posted: Feb 3, 2021 / 10:49 PM EST / Updated: Feb 3, 2021 / 10:49 PM EST
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Many immigrants in Indiana are pushing for House Bill 1138 and Senate Bill 319 to get passed.
Under the current Indiana law, undocumented immigrants are not allowed a driver’s license. The bills would give driving cards to those immigrants.
Legislators say the driving cards are an alternative showing proof-of-driving qualifications. The cards also would allow the holder to get auto insurance.
The author of House Bill 1138, Rep. Chris Campbell tells News 8 the measures are a step in the right direction to making sure people are safer while out on the road. The Democrat from West Lafayette says the idea has been introduced more than seven times already in the legislature.
“They’re on the road; they’re driving without a driver’s license. That means that they may not have insurance on their vehicle, but they also have not passed a driver’s test,” Campbell said.
Wendy Catalán Ruano came from Mexico with her parents more than 15 years ago. The 23-year-old, the oldest of five siblings, said she’s already faced a host of challenges.
“My mom is undocumented and my dad in 2018 was deported under the same circumstances of not having a driver’s license,” said Ruano, a recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
Ruano, who is also a community field organizer for Movimiento Cosecha, says the driving cards are a form of protection for many immigrants including her mom.
“Now that it’s just my siblings and I with my mom, we have to be a lot more careful because I know that if something were to happen to her in regards to going to jail or being apprehended by ICE (U.S. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), I would be the one fully in charge of my siblings,” Ruano said.
She says her mom is a hard worker and that a driving card would allow her mom to identify herself and provide some relief.
“We just want to know that my mom is safe so that if we were to move away we’d know that she’d be OK,” Ruano said.
Lawmakers say the driving cards would not allow carriers to vote nor would they provide a pathway to citizenship. Only a few states including California and Nevada offer driver’s licenses to drivers whether or not they’re undocumented.
The House bill was assigned Jan. 7 to the Roads and Transportation Committee. The Senate bill was assigned Jan. 14 to the Homeland Security and Transportation Committee. Neither bill on Wednesday was slated for any further action by the legislature in this year’s session.
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INDIANAPOLIS — A bipartisan group of Indiana lawmakers wants to allow undocumented immigrants living in the Hoosier State to be able to obtain driving cards.
Lawmakers heard public input on the idea Tuesday during a summer study committee meeting.
Ben Wisser, who came to the U.S. seven years ago, welcomes the proposal.
“Sometimes it’s hard because it depends if I can go to work, I can go to the schools,” he said.
Wisser is living in Indiana undocumented, so he doesn’t have a driver’s license. He often takes rides to get around, he said, but that’s not always possible.
“Sometimes I’m scared to go out if I get a problem,” Wisser said.
State Sen. David Niezgodski (D-South Bend) has pushed for several years to allow undocumented Hoosiers to obtain driving cards. They take the place of a license but have similar requirements, including training behind the wheel, passing a driving test and having car insurance.
“A good many of them probably are driving,” Niezgodski said. “So they don’t have car insurance. That’s causing our uninsured motorist insurance to go up.”
A growing number of Republicans support the measure. State Sen. Blake Doriot (R-Goshen) partnered with Niezgodski to request Tuesday’s discussion on the idea.
“The industry, especially in the Goshen area, would collapse without them because they work, they raise their families,” Doriot said.
So far, 16 other states have launched similar programs. Indiana lawmakers are looking at modeling next year’s bill after a law recently approved in Utah.
Under the proposal that’s been made in Indiana, the driving card cannot be used to drive outside the state or as ID for any other purposes, such as voting, Niezgodski and Doriot explained. Only those who have lived in Indiana for at least five years would be eligible to obtain a driving card.
State Rep. Bob Morris (R-Fort Wayne) floated a requirement of citizenship classes.
“This is a privilege granted to the citizens of the great state of Indiana, and these people are not citizens,” Morris said during the meeting.
State Rep. Jim Pressel (R-Rolling Prairie), who chairs the House Roads and Transportation committee, said his biggest concern is ensuring the driver cards can’t be used as ID to vote.
“I think what we learned was it is not a form of ID and that it can be right on the ID that it is a non-voting card,” Pressel said. “And I think that helps a lot.”
Several other lawmakers from both parties spoke in support of the proposal during this week’s meeting. It’s too early to tell if a bill will be able to move forward next session.