Surprise! Surprise! Democrats are once again using the DREAM Act and undocumented youth as a wedge issue to gain support for . . . well just Democrats. It’s pretty much been the story on the national front for the last two years; the Dream Act constantly being discussed by politicians when it benefits them, but when it has an actual chance at passing, it is a struggle to get anyone to talk about it.
In California this is translating to a very mis-guided effort for drivers licenses. It doesn’t sound that bad at the onset, but these license would only be for those who qualify for deferred action under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Still sounds good, huh? Well, with deferred action you already get a license! This law would not add anything and would come with the same heat from the anti-immigrants.
Assemblyman Cedillo, instead of pushing for a smaller, purely symbolic measure why not push for a drivers license for all undocumented migrants in California. Why not then push for Gov. Brown, a Democrat, to sign the bill? I mean if we are going to give Democrats brownie points for ‘helping immigrants’ then why not actually push for them to take a big step for us?
This is the same state legislator who created a symbolic signing of the wrong half of the California DREAM Act, and only pushed the other half to passage when we all called him out on his ploy. The Democrats are not in this to make our lives better; they are in this to win votes, plain and simple. And guess who is supporting this effort? None other than your friendly neighborhood RI4A organization CHIRLA, the same organization that was telling all of us that we were selfish for asking for the DREAM Act in 2010. The same organization that pushed back on the DREAM Act until the very month it was voted on. Is it any surprise that they are again so disconnected from reality?
Not only is Assemblyman Cedillo proposing to push a fake bill for votes, but he’s also taking away from a real driver’s license for everyone. In 2002, a bill was passed and signed into law that would do just that. That measure was repealed by Gov. Schwarzenegger. Now that California has a Democratic governor things should be different. Why won’t Assemblyman Cedillo push a real bill for driver’s licenses and hold Gov. Brown accountable?
Tell Cedillo we don’t want a fake driver’s license bill to bolster the Democrats, we want a real license for all undocumented immigrants in California!
