Phoenix – Rights activists in New Mexico are celebrating the state Senate's rejection of two bills that sought to bar undocumented immigrants from obtaining driver's licenses.
"I believe it is an important victory for our immigrant community," Mario Dominguez, spokesman for a day-laborers organization in Albuquerque, told Efe Tuesday by telephone.
The bills were defeated in the New Mexico Senate by identical 25-14 votes, dealing a political setback to new Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, who promised to repeal a 2003 state law allowing undocumented migrants to obtain driver's licenses.
Community leaders, civil rights organizations, elected officials and representatives of New Mexico law enforcement agencies spoke out against the repeal legislation.
Republicans who supported the repeal effort say issuing driver's licenses to people without Social Security numbers constitutes a risk to public safety and attracts undocumented immigrants to New Mexico.
Since the 2003 passage of the law allowing people to obtain driver's licenses without providing proof of immigration status, New Mexico has issued 82,700 licenses to foreigners.
The state has no information on how many of those people were undocumented immigrants.
Despite the victory on driver's licenses, New Mexico activists remain concerned about the executive order Gov. Martinez signed early this month requiring state police to verify the immigration status of anyone placed under arrest.
Her predecessor, Democrat Bill Richardson, issued an order in 2005 expressly barring state police from questioning people about their immigration status.
New Mexico is 45 percent Hispanic, according to Census Bureau figures, though 83 percent of the state's Latinos are U.S.-born.
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