The Virginia General Assembly on Tuesday approved legislation that will allow some 250,000 undocumented immigrants to obtain a license to drive motor vehicles, not commercial vehicles, after a struggle of several years.
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Legislation It was approved in the Chamber of Delegates with 57 votes in favor and 22 against, and in the Senate with 22 votes in favor and 18 against.
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The lower house legislation stipulates that people can apply for a common driver’s license without having to present documents about their legal immigration status. The upper chamber version stipulates a specific permit for undocumented immigrants, which is different from the common license.
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Luis Aguilar, director of the migrant support organization Virginia HOUSEHe told Efe that there is now a 24 or 25 day deadline for the two versions to be harmonized in conference before sending them for promulgation by Governor Ralph Northam.
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The bills to grant driver’s license to hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants advanced last week in the Virginia and Massachusetts legislatures after years of struggle by activist groups.
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These are the 13 states where undocumented immigrants can obtain a driver’s license
The prolonged campaign for licensing in Virginia received significant encouragement when last November the Democrats, for the first time in a quarter of a century, won the majority in both houses of the General Assembly, giving greater political support to Northam, also a Democrat.
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The promoters of the initiatives were Senator Jennifer Boysko and Delegate Elizabeth Guzman, both Democrats and districts in the north of the state.
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“We had a very successful day,” Aguilar said. “There were 200 to 300 people here in the morning and now we go out to celebrate.”
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During the discussion of the bill on licensing in the lower house, delegate Terry Austin, a Republican, argued that the granting of an official identification document to undocumented migrants opens the door to fraud.
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“This license can be taken as the person being a citizen of the United States. This could mislead the individual identity and endanger the national security of the United States,” he said.
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The lack of a license to drive vehicles “It especially affects working people, those who have to travel for a job, housewives that take children to school or the doctor, or go shopping”Edgard Aranda Yapog, director of the Virginia Latino Organizations Coalition (VACOLAO), told Efe.
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“The majority of those affected are Latino, but there is also a large Asian population in this situation,” he said.
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