A last-ditch effort to ban driver’s licenses for immigrants who have been granted a humanitarian reprieve from deportation died on a bipartisan 27-8 vote in the state Senate Monday.
Senate Bill 404 would block state driver’s licenses for immigrants who don’t have legal status in the U.S. but who have been granted “deferred action,” or permission to legally remain and work here.
The measure did not make it on the Senate’s agenda for Monday, or Crossover day, the deadline for bills to pass in at least one chamber. So SB 404’s chief sponsor – Republican Sen. Bill Heath of Bremen – attempted to attach it to other legislation.
Republican Sen. Tommie Williams of Lyons – a farmer and the former Senate president pro tem – spoke against the legislation on the Senate floor. He referred to how the bill would block driver’s licenses for immigrants who were illegally brought here as children and who have been granted deportation deferrals.
“What the amendment does is punish the son for the sins of the parent,” Williams said. “The son is not responsible for the sins of the parent. And not only that – we educated them through kindergarten, and middle school and high school and said basically, ‘You are American.’”
Williams and other critics said the legislation would block people from getting to their jobs and contributing to the state’s economy.
Heath spoke about upholding the nation’s legal immigration system.
“Those people who have gone through that are appalled that we would willy-nilly hand out Georgia benefits to those folks who did not attempt to go through the process,” he said.
Earlier Monday, a coalition of civil and immigrant rights groups demonstrated at the state Capitol against SB 404 and Senate Resolution 1031. SR 1031 seeks to amend the state Constitution to make English Georgia’s official language and prevent the state from issuing driver’s license exams in any language other than English. SR 1031’s future appeared uncertain late Monday afternoon as it had not made it on the Senate’s agenda for a vote.
Among the groups that spoke out against the measures were: the Asian American Legal Advocacy Center, Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta and the Coalition for the Peoples’ Agenda.
Mitzy Calderon of Flowery Branch was among those who spoke against SB 404. Calderon was illegally brought from Mexico to the U.S. when she was a child. She has been granted a two-year deportation deferral through the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
“SB 404 really bothers me and hurts my feelings,” she said. “We are going to keep fighting for our rights because the right to drive should not be denied to anybody regardless of their legal status.”
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