Rides for Immigrants

In this April 1, 2017 photo, Antonia Catalan drives her SUV in the town of Redland, Fla., to pick up a migrant worker who is in the country illegally. As a U.S. citizen with a driver's license, Catalan offers free rides to immigrants in the country illegally and without driver's licenses, so they can avoid arrest as fear spreads over President Donald Trump's directives to expand immigration enforcement. (AP Photo/Adriana Gomez)

(Adriana Gomez)

AUBURN, Calif. -- Leticia Aceves remembers the fear of her first drive alone.

She was pregnant and in the country illegally with no driver's license, and little grasp of English or California's traffic laws. She had a doctor's appointment, so she drove on side streets and avoided Highway 49 -- the town's main road -- hoping to lessen her chance of being pulled over by police.

"I was shaking all the way from my house to the doctor's appointment," Aceves said.

Two years ago, driving got less stressful for Aceves and 850,000 other Californians who received driver's licenses under a state law meant to help immigrants living in the country illegally become more integrated into society.

Over the past decade, California has taken several steps to bring immigrants without legal status into the mainstream, including health care for the young and financial aid for college students.

But none of the other measures changed lives so profoundly and quickly as the driver's licenses. Being able to drive without fear of arrest has given immigrants access to more jobs and made them more confident drivers, they say.

Aceves now drives as many as 50 miles a day for her house-cleaning business.

But President Donald Trump's crackdown on immigration has made those license holders anxious. Many of them worry that the cards will be used to identify them as being here illegally and lead to deportation. That has prompted some to avoid getting the licenses, despite assurances from the Department of Motor Vehicles that it will not share information with immigration officials.

The issue facing undocumented immigrants in California isn't at play in Oregon. Since 2008, Oregon has required applicants for driver's licenses or permits to provide proof of citizenship.

In California, the decision to give driver's licenses to immigrants here illegally was hotly debated, and it took more than a decade to get the law passed. Critics continue to argue that it has legitimized illegal immigration, and it remains unclear whether it will be challenged by the Trump administration.

The licenses are designed for people who cannot show proof of legal-resident status in the United States, but their use is limited to driving. They can't be used to board airplanes or cross international borders.

Still, the licenses have changed the lives of tens of thousands of people in California. Manuel Mesa remembers well the anxiety that came with driving illegally. He and his family always worried about being pulled over by police, which happened a few times.

"One time they put my wife in the back of a patrol car, they made me take off my shoes, handcuffed me and searched my car," he said.

He was eventually let go without arrest, he said. When Mesa got a driver's license in 2015, he became more inclined to challenge police if he felt his rights were being violated. He also said learning traffic laws in preparation for the exam made him more confident behind the wheel.

"In my mind, it was a very important document," he said, not least because it gave him some "breathing space" when dealing with police.

More important, the license helped him get a better job. Mesa applied for a commercial driver's license and now works as a big-rig driver, hauling wood, computers, foods and other products.

Jessica Gonzalez, a DMV spokeswoman, said that although the department makes "databases available to law-enforcement entities," that information would not include the legal status of license holders. She said state laws forbid police from discriminating based on a person showing an AB-60 license.

ICE spokeswoman Lori Haley said investigators could use information from the DMV in the course of criminal investigations, but that "ICE does not use data from the DMV to identify immigration enforcement targets."

This month, though, the American Civil Liberties Union released documents that it contends show that Vermont's Department of Motor Vehicles coordinated with ICE last year. The record included emails between ICE and the Vermont DMV in which immigration agents asked that the legal status of certain drivers be checked, said James Lyall, executive director of the ACLU of Vermont.

Vermont is one of 12 states and the District of Columbia where unauthorized immigrants can obtain driver's licenses.

The Trust Act in California offers a measure of protection, said Daniel Sharp, the legal director at the Central American Resource Center, a community organization that helps immigrants get licenses, among other programs. That law makes it harder for state and local law enforcement officials to hold immigrants who have committed minor crimes for pickup by ICE agents.

In this climate of fear, Sharp said, it's unlikely that immigrants who have waited this long will apply for a license.

Proponents of California's law argue that licensing immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally has made roads safer, because those with licenses have to pass driving tests and eye exams.

A recent study by Stanford researchers showed that hit-and-run cases were increasing more slowly because licensed drivers are less likely to flee the scene of a crime.

But critics such as Hans von Spakovsky of the conservative Heritage Foundation say issuing the licenses to such immigrants legitimizes their presence in the country and makes it easier for them to stay. Even though the license looks different and has specific limitations, von Spakovsky said, it "makes it easier for them to use this government-issued ID for many illegal purposes, such as applying for government benefits or registering to vote."

-- The Associated Press