Zupkus Votes Against Licenses for Undocumented Immigrants

HARTFORD—State Rep. Lezlye Zupkus early Thursday voted against legislation creating special drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants who have lived in the state for just 90 days. Majority Democrats in controversial fashion rolled out a full version of the bill in the House late Wednesday without the benefit of a public hearing and thorough committee scrutiny. It wasn’t until a roughly 8-hour debate ended at 5:45 a.m. that the bill passed the House by a 74-55 vote. The program begins Jan. 1, 2015.

Zupkus was among lawmakers who pointed to significant problems with the bill, including an inadequate background check process that makes no attempt to ascertain if the driver’s license applicant has a felony criminal record outside the boundaries of Connecticut.

“I just couldn’t vote for legislation that says we’ll offer a group of people access to driver’s licenses by a specific date when there are so many unanswered questions and very real concerns about how we’ll do it,” said Zupkus who joined Republicans in a calling for creating a task force to provide robust analysis of the issue by Jan. 2014. “There’s nothing we’d love more than to be part of the process to find a solution to this issue, but this bill and the at-any-cost process used to ram it through the House in the dead of night prevented that. There should have been a bipartisan approach for such important legislation that will have far-reaching impact on so many people. ”

A spring Quinnipiac Poll reported that 65 percent of respondents opposed licenses for undocumented immigrants.

Opponents of the legislation say it would impose significant financial and staffing burdens on the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles, which would likely need extra personnel and resources to process the deluge of driver’s license applications anticipated by the bill’s advocates. The legislature’s budget-writing Appropriations Committee had yet to consider the concept before the vote, either.

“We were forced to vote on this legislation without the concrete facts taxpayers would expect us to have,” Zupkus said. “People I represent are sick of this ‘we’ll figure it out later’ approach.”

House proponents of the bill were unable to provide concrete information about how many undocumented immigrants would be eligible for the new licenses, doing little to alleviate concerns that the applicant pool might be significantly larger than anticipated.

Connecticut would be the only east coast state with this law, raising concerns the state could become a haven for people seeking licenses. Particularly worrisome are people with out-of-state felony convictions who are eager to take advantage a proposal soft spot that allows them to get a license by simply proving residency.

Seven states that previously granted driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants have since repealed those laws.

Among the other failings of the legislation targeted by Zupkus and Republicans is the alarming lack of a mechanism to validate where an individual is originally from, or where they currently reside. It also allows unverifiable documents such as emails to suffice as valid forms of proving residence.