Undocumented immigrants crowd California DMV offices for new licenses

Thousands of immigrants in the country illegally on Friday took a big step into California life -- and its clogged freeway commutes -- by completing an American rite of passage: waiting in line at the DMV.

The first business day of 2015 was also the first time in more than two decades that they could sign up for a driver's license in this state. California is now the 10th state, and by far the largest, to permit immigrants living in the country illegally to drive.

At least 2,000 people in the Bay Area, and more than 9,300 statewide, made appointments in advance and crowded DMV branches from Pittsburg to Redwood City. Others braved walk-in waits, lining up as early as 4 a.m. in freezing weather outside a Department of Motor Vehicles field office in East San Jose.

"It's going to be a big change," said San Leandro construction worker Francisco Galvez, clutching his Mexican passport as he arrived for an appointment at the Hayward DMV to prove his identity and California residency and take the knowledge test. "I can get to work without fear. I can have a normal life."

Signed by Gov. Jerry Brown last year, Assembly Bill 60 reverses a 1993 state ban on immigrants being able to get a license without proof of legal U.S. residency.

The new licenses are one of two policies this year that will normalize the lives of many longtime Californians who had been living in the shadows. The other is President Barack Obama's new federal policy to grant work permits and protection from deportation to millions ofimmigrants here illegally but who have U.S. children or spouses.

Challenging the DMV's reputation for bleak and slow-moving bureaucracy, many applicants cheerfully answered a road quiz, gave thumbprints, posed for a camera and submitted their documents at Bay Area offices. Others appeared nervous as they crammed for the test. Successful applicants left with temporary permits Friday. Most will now have to return for a behind-the-wheel test before the DMV mails them their first driver's card, although the DMV will waive that test in some cases, such as for those with out-of-state licenses.

As he waited in line, San Jose resident Antonio Torres said he vividly remembered passage of the 1993 ban, a relic of then-Gov. Pete Wilson's crackdown on illegal immigration, because it was the last time he was able to drive legally.

Torres, now 46 and working as a quality control engineer at a Silicon Valley manufacturing firm, never stopped driving to work after his license expired in the mid-1990s, but he was forced to pay higher insurance premiums and three times watched his cars get towed and impounded after routine traffic stops.

"It wasn't good for the economy, but tow trucks and police made a lot of money from us," he said. "Who knows how much money they made just because we couldn't have driver's licenses, not because we were bad drivers."

Crowds wait to apply for AB60 licenses at the DMV Center in San Jose on Jan. 2, 2015. (Photo by Gary Reyes/Bay Area News Group)

A DMV worker politely congratulated Torres after he breezed through his touch-screen road knowledge test in the recently opened DMV office in East San Jose, one of four around the state designed to accommodate the influx of newly legal drivers. The state appropriated $141 million for the new law, much of which went to hiring about 1,000 new DMV workers.

The agency expects to deliver 1.4 million new licenses over the next three years because of the bill. Its author, Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Salinas, has said it will make roads safer and drivers more responsible, citing a study that shows unlicensed drivers are three times more likely to cause a fatal crash.

Republicans have challenged those claims, arguing -- as Wilson did in the 1990s -- that the privilege of driving is a benefit that encourages future illegal immigration.

"As a broad principle, we should not be providing so many benefits that we provide an incentive for them to come here," said Tom Del Beccaro, former chairman of the California Republican Party.

Some immigrant applicants interviewed at DMV offices Friday recounted their long commutes on public transit to get to jobs just a few miles away. Many others acknowledged they have been driving illegally for a decade or more, but with the constant fear of being stopped and deported.

At the El Cerrito DMV, 46-year-old Richmond resident Gustavo Castillo said he is happy to finally drive legally to his elder home care job, drop his kids off at school and for emergency trips such as to the hospital.

"All of us, at some time or another, had to drive without a license," he said. "It is because of necessity that we violate the law."

East San Jose was one of the busiest DMV offices Friday, welcoming more than 450 people who had scheduled appointments. Others flocked there from as far as San Francisco, Alameda and Gilroy because it was the only Bay Area field office accepting walk-ins.

The temperature was about 32 degrees when DMV spokesman Artemio Armenta arrived at 4 a.m. to find a line already forming, four hours before the doors opened.

"California's making history," Armenta said. "There's no excuse now to not have a California driver's license."

Contact Matt O'Brien at 408-920-5011. Staff writer Tom Lochner contributed to this report.

AB 60 licenses

Under Assembly Bill 60, immigrants in the country illegally can, beginning Friday, get a California driver's license if they:

• Show proof of identity and California residency.

• Pass a vision test and driver knowledge test.

• Give a thumbprint.

• Have a picture taken.

• Pass a road sign test and behind-the-wheel driving test.

• Pay a $33 fee.

How will the AB 60 licenses differ from other California driver's licenses?The new licenses will say "FEDERAL LIMITS APPLY" in the top right corner of the front of the card, and "not valid for official federal purposes" on the back of the card, to fulfill a demand by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that they are distinguishable from licenses granted to citizens and legal residents of California. How many are applying? 9,357 people had Friday appointments to get new driver licenses at DMV offices statewide. 7,329 have Saturday appointments. 1.4 million are predicted to get new licenses over the next three years because of AB 60.

Source: California Department of Motor Vehicles

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