It’s about driver’s licenses

We are displeased with Judge Terry Green’s decision against Special Order 7 of the Los Angeles Police Department, since this will once again expose unlicensed drivers to costly vehicle impounds.

However, the judge is right about something: it is up to the Legislature in Sacramento to provide the solution.

It is important to appeal the judge’s decision and tell police officers who say they are confused to follow their department’s guidelines. But it is also essential to ensure that traffic laws are not mixed with immigration laws, especially in a state like California.

The story would be different if our state issued driver’s licenses to all drivers who know how to drive a vehicle and are insured.

If so, people would be unlicensed for reasons other than immigration—which already prevents millions of Californians from having a license.

Considering an irresponsible, dangerous driver to be equal to an unlicensed undocumented immigrant is a mistake. This does not mean they do not exist, but recklessness is not about residency papers. For each anecdote about an undocumented immigrant who behaves criminally behind the wheel, there are many others who are legal residents or citizens, and not for that less dangerous. In any case, the problem is about drivers using poor judgment and endangering other motorists—not how they entered the U.S.

With a Democratic governor and Legislature, there are no more excuses for California not to become a state like Illinois, New Mexico, Utah and Washington, which issue licenses to the undocumented.

AB60, a bill sponsored by Assemblyman Luis Alejo (D-Watsonville), which will allow people without a Social Security number to get a license with alternative forms of ID, is currently the best option. It went to the Senate, where it needs to be approved and then sent to the governor for his signature.

Extremely punitive state laws that require vehicles driven by unlicensed drivers to be impounded are a thing of the past. Special Order 7 is needed because it responds to the current views of Californians, which are kinder toward the undocumented than 20 years ago. However, the real solution is already making the rounds in Sacramento.