Michigan Votes Forum

Introduced in the House on December 12, 2001, to require a person to be a citizen or a legal resident alien in order to apply for a Michigan driver’s license, and to authorize the Department of State to report to an appropriate federal agency if it has reasonable cause to believe that a driver’s license application contains information that an applicant is an illegal alien. The bill is part of a legislative terrorism response package comprised of House Bills 5495 to 5520, and Senate Bills 930 to 960

The vote was 74 in favor, 30 opposed and 4 not voting

(House Roll Call 61 at House Journal 10)

Click here to view bill details.

Reps. Phillips, Hale, Williams, Jacobs, Minore, Clark, Daniels, Lipsey, Hardman, Murphy, Whitmer, Lemmons and Waters made the following statement:

"Mr. Speaker and members of the House:

I voted no on HB 5497(H-1) because it would require Secretary of State workers to report people to the federal government, transforming these state employees into auxiliary federal INS agents. Especially given the complexity of determining whether a person is in this country "lawfully," this provision is likely to result in instances of racial and ethnic profiling by Secretary of State workers. It will also discourage certain persons, such as those who speak with an accent, from going to the Secretary of state to apply for or renew their current driver's licenses. The presence of this bill in the anti-terrorism package underscores the need for passage of legislation to prohibit racial profiling.

This is a package of sixty bills. This bill represents only a small piece of the overall package and is unlikely to make any positive change to our current licensing system. Furthermore, if passed with the current language, HB 5497 would place a burden on the office of the Secretary of State that they are ill-equipped to handle.

Secretary of State employees, no matter how dedicated, are not trained or equipped to handle the sorts of complex issues that are regulated by an entire federal government agency. The fact of the matter is that Secretary of State employees are not Immigration and Naturalization (INS) workers.

The Office of the Secretary of State is already facing budget cuts and branch offices are being closed throughout the state. Without training and resources for these efforts, this bill will only cause a flood of new problems and inefficiencies for people visiting Secretary of State branch offices."

I voted no on this bill today and the following are my comments. It is most difficult to ever sanction any person here in our Country and State as illegal or unlawful, but a person's status here is an immigration enforcement issue. My experience in government has been that we are generally reactive rather than proactive, which is not necessarily wrong, but the reaction must always be well thought through, which unfortunately is were I believe we are with this bill, however well intended it might be. In testimony before our Transportation Committee earlier this week, we are told the existing secretary of state administrative process deals with the question of a question of a person's documentation. If one of her employees questions what information is presented to them, it is referred to her enforcement division to investigate and handle. Since coming to the House, we have continually spoke about the importance of the agriculture industry to our State and have many times had legislation before us to be sure agriculture remains the 2nd or 3rd largest industry in Michigan. This bill in my opinion doesn't reflect supporting the agriculture industry in our State. We may solve one problem, but we clearly are going to be exacerbating problems relating to migrant workers not only in this industry, but Michigan's construction industry as well. Some would say this is a problem within the Latino community, but it deals with peoples of all nationalities coming to our Country and State. We are currently experiencing new populations of immigrants into some f our urban centers making them viable communities once again. At the conclusion of our committee meeting this week, the Chair requested some of us to work with interested parties to see if we could meet to find a workable solution. Please vote no today and give this work group a chance to accomplish that goal.

I voted no on this bill because it will not stop terrorists, those who participated in the Sept. 11 bombing were actually here legally or had been under visa's when they applied for their license. It will increase the number of unlicensed drivers on our roads. If these drivers are involved in an accident they will be uninsured so the cost of our no fault insurance will go up.This bill will place a function of the INS in the Secretary of State's office where employees are not trained for this function and will encourage racial profiling. We do need to protect our citizens with any means possible but this bill is not one of those means.

While I strongly support efforts to protect Michigan and the United States, I voted no on HB 5497 (H-1) because in a rush to pass necessary anti-terrorism legislation, there will be unintended consequences that could have been avoided by taking more time with this bill. This is a package of 60 bills. This bill represents only a small piece of the overall package and is unlikely to make any positive change to our current licensing system. Furthermore, if passed with the current language, HB 5497 would place a burden on the office of the Secretary of State that they are ill-equipped to handle.In considering my vote on HB 5497, I am compelled by the testimony of the Michigan Catholic Conference and the Diocese of Kalamazoo. They say that this bill will not accomplish its intended purpose. It will not drive undocumented persons out of Michigan. They are persons with homes, jobs, and families and are making substantial contributions to our communities. Depriving them of a drivers license will just make their lives and their children's lives more difficult. It will also result in an increased threat to the safety of all our people and increased auto insurance costs. This bill will also have negative consequences for Michigan's agriculture industry. In the Diocese of Kalamazoo, there are 20,000 migrants working each year in area fields and orchards. Many of these are undocumented immigrants.

I voted no on HB 5497(H-1) because it would require Secretary of State workers to report people to the federal government, transforming these state employees into auxiliary federal INS agents. Especially given the complexity of determining whether a person is in this country "lawfully," this provision is likely to result in instances of racial and ethnic profiling by Secretary of State workers. It will also discourage certain persons, such as those who speak with an accent, from going to the Secretary of state to apply for or renew their current driver's licenses. The presence of this bill in the anti-terrorism package underscores the need for passage of legislation to prohibit racial profiling.

This is a package of sixty bills. This bill represents only a small piece of the overall package and is unlikely to make any positive change to our current licensing system. Furthermore, if passed with the current language, HB 5497 would place a burden on the office of the Secretary of State that they are ill-equipped to handle.

Secretary of State employees, no matter how dedicated, are not trained or equipped to handle the sorts of complex issues that are regulated by an entire federal government agency. The fact of the matter is that Secretary of State employees are not Immigration and Naturalization (INS) workers.

The Office of the Secretary of State is already facing budget cuts and branch offices are being closed throughout the state. Without training and resources for these efforts, this bill will only cause a flood of new problems and inefficiencies for people visiting Secretary of State branch offices.

While I support efforts to protect both Michigan and the United States, I voted no because in the rush to pass necessary anti-terrorism legislation, there is some unintended consequences that could have been avoided by taking a little more time with this bill. There is also the concern on the impact on our agriculture industry.

We will be giving up a process that has proved to be successful in tracking persons in Michigan. This is undue hardship to Michigan families.

If we are really interested in terrorism we should realize that this is a immigration bill not a terrorist bill, we have 42 classifications of visas. We need to address illegal ID's, birth certificates and documentation in our state. I stand strong in protecting Michigan residents and stand ready to work on this issue.

I voted no on HB 5497(H-1) because it would require Secretary of State workers to report people to the federal government, transforming these state employees into auxiliary federal INS agents. Especially given the complexity of determining whether a person is in this country "lawfully," this provision is likely to result in instances of racial and ethnic profiling by Secretary of State workers. It will also discourage certain persons, such as those who speak with an accent, from going to the Secretary of state to apply for or renew their current driver's licenses. The presence of this bill in the anti-terrorism package underscores the need for passage of legislation to prohibit racial profiling.

This is a package of sixty bills. This bill represents only a small piece of the overall package and is unlikely to make any positive change to our current licensing system. Furthermore, if passed with the current language, HB 5497 would place a burden on the office of the Secretary of State that they are ill-equipped to handle.

Secretary of State employees, no matter how dedicated, are not trained or equipped to handle the sorts of complex issues that are regulated by an entire federal government agency. The fact of the matter is that Secretary of State employees are not Immigration and Naturalization (INS) workers.

The Office of the Secretary of State is already facing budget cuts and branch offices are being closed throughout the state. Without training and resources for these efforts, this bill will only cause a flood of new problems and inefficiencies for people visiting Secretary of State branch offices.

House Bill 5497 will not increase our safety, but it will negatively impact residents of Michigan. It will negatively impact our farmers and the workers that help to harvest our annual crops. It will increase the number of unlicensed drivers and uninsured drivers on our Michigan Roads.

I voted no on HB 5497 for several reasons. First, this bill has been around for a long time. The bill was not written as a result of the terrorist attack on 9/11. It will not achieve its goal of tracking terrorists that are undocumented. We must remember that the terrorists that were here on 9/11 actually were documented legally to begin with. I believe that the more documentation we have on people, the better we are able to track them down. Secondly, this bill turns the Secretary of State's office into an INS office. In my community, we have just had one office closed due to budget cuts and now we are asking them to take on the additional responsibility of tracking undocumented individuals in this state. I don't think the state is prepared to take on the additional training and information costs to the local branches.Third, we have to remember that there are numerous undocumented persons in Michigan that have lived, worked and raised families here for many years. They comprised a large percentage of the agricultural workforce both in Michigan and nationally, are involved in other industries, and pay millions of dollars in taxes, be it the income tax, sales tax, or Social Security tax.Lastly, this bill, given the complexity of determining whether a person is in this country 'lawfully,' is likely to result in instances of racial and ethnic profiling by Secretary of State workers.Therefore, Mr. Speaker, and colleagues I voted no!

In our zeal to rid the nation of terrorists who are here illegally, were are adopting legislation that will harass migrant workers and the Michigan agricultural community that cannot survive without them. This state is the nation's 4th largest user of migrant labor. Nearly all of them are of Mexican decent. Though there is an intense national debate raging over Mexican immigration, legal and otherwise, no serious person would suggest that Mexico is exporting terrorists into Michigan. Whether intentional or not, the propriety of Mexican immigration has been mixed up with the prevention of terrorism, and it is producing bad results.

My concerns on this matter might have been alleviated by a proposal that was previously attached to this bill. At one point, this legislation would have granted legal standing to Mexican driver's licenses, similar to the status granted to Canadian driver's licenses. Unfortunately, we have now removed that sensible proposal, implicitly but irrationally indicating that we consider Mexico to be a point of concern regarding the fight against terrorists.

We cast aside our chance to demonstrate that this bill is not directed at Mexicans. What remains is a so-called 'anti-terrorism' bill that will cast a dragnet more likely to ensnare cherry pickers than suicide bombers. While our migrant workers make very little money, our terrorist enemies have demonstrated an ability to raise and use substantial sums of money. If middle class high school kids find ways to get falsified Michigan driver's licenses, then well-heeled suicide bombers won't have any trouble either. This bill will harass the Mexican migrants and Michigan farms that keep America strong. It will do little or nothing to stop the terrorist visitor who wants to make Americans die.

Illegal immigration, and the level of legal immigration, are pressing matters that need to be addressed. Our immigration policy is a mess due in large measure to bad legislation passed with noble intentions and little common sense. This bill is an immigration bill, not a terrorism bill. It will make an even greater mess of our immigration policy, and will do little to solve our terrorism problem.

Alright, I have been in the sec. of state's office while a person did not speak any english I had to translate. The person told me the information they were giving was false because they were not here legall, I asked them if they were sure what they were telling me they said yes. I told the employee and they said it doesn't matter. I take great offense to illegal immigrants having the same priveleges as I do. I come from a family of immigrants. My grandfather took the time to do it right and it is people that vote against things like this that spit on law abiding immigrants and all their efforts. Don't reward liars. Don't reward people who have managed to stay under the radar. Make laws that encourage and support people that follow the law. Finally, why is a religious organization dictating what our state reps approve or not. They are entitled to their opinion, but they should not meddle in goverment affairs. Nor should our politicians be bias to it.