LOS ANGELES, 7 September 2003 — Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, the subject of next month’s controversial recall vote, approved late Friday legislation allowing undocumented migrants living in California the possibility of obtaining a drivers license.
The law will dispense with the current requirement to show US citizenship or visas to obtain the document, the nearest thing to an identity card in the United States.
About two million undocumented immigrants are believed to be living in California.
“Right now, let’s not kid ourselves,” Davis said as he signed the measure into law. “People are driving to work. They are driving without the demonstration they know the rules of the road.”
The citizenship rules were imposed in 1993 when Pete Wilson — currently an adviser on actor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s gubernatorial campaign — was governor.
Schwarzenegger has already said that he would overturn the law if Davis is recalled in the Oct. 7 election, and he is swept into office.
“There is a security problem with it,” he said, arguing, like many Republicans, that the measure encourages illegal immigration and makes it easier for foreign terrorists to enter the state.
However hundreds of Latinos celebrated in ethnic neighborhoods in Santa Ana — southeast of Los Angeles — and in the capital Sacramento when the measure was signed.
Davis however had twice vetoed the measure earlier, and over the past days seemed reluctant to sign it.
Latino voters, who abandoned Davis in the 2002 election, make up 17 percent of the California electorate.
