INDIANAPOLIS — Tuesday’s debate over whether Indiana should give driving privilege cards to undocumented people living in the state opened up another discussion in the Senate’s Homeland Security and Transportation Committee.
One, where both sides agreed that the federal government needs to fix what they believe is a broken federal immigration system.
It’s a system Martha Ramirez said she’s tried to navigate for years, ever since she and her parents came to the United States from Mexico more than 20 years ago, without documentation.
“It was not my choice to break the law, but I’m here and I want to stay here, but I want to stay here, doing the right things,” Ramirez said.
For this mother of five, part of that would involve getting a driving privilege card so she wouldn’t be breaking the law every time she gets behind the wheel of a car to drive somewhere, but sometimes that’s exactly what Ramirez said she needs to do.
That’s because her 3-year-old daughter Luna has leukemia.
“For me, it’s very difficult to travel to the hospital when she get sick, when she need treatment like chemotherapy,” Ramirez explained, saying oftentimes, she has friends or family with driver’s licenses drive her.
Now, Senate Bill 248 proposes giving undocumented immigrants living in Indiana, like Ramirez, a driving privilege card.
“The word of the day was pragmatic,” said Sen. Blake Doriot, R-District 12, who authored the bill.
Under the proposal, the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles would issue driving privilege cards to undocumented immigrants who first pass the state’s driving test, pay Indiana taxes for at least a year, submit fingerprints for a background check and have auto insurance.
It would also cost the cardholder close to $70 in administrative costs to get one.
“There is no way this can be used for voting privileges,” Doriot said after the bill passed out of committee by a 5-4 vote.
“It really just is, do you have the qualifications to be able to drive,” said the University of Notre Dame junior Ben Jamín Rascón Garcia, who is part of the Indiana Driving Record Card Project, that studied the proposal.
“We will see lives saved as a result of this legislation. We will see a reduction in hit-and-runs that happen because people aren’t afraid of cops anymore. They’re not going to be fleeing anymore,” he said.
Some senators voted against the bill, like Sen. James Buck, R-District 21, who said voting for it would be giving privileges to people who are not following immigration laws.
“Freedom does not exist without following the rules, and doing the right thing, it just can’t survive,” Buck said.
Ramirez is focused on a different kind of survival, her daughter’s, as she fights cancer and says having a driving privilege card would be one less thing to worry about in that battle.
“It’s not a luxury. I really need it,” she said.
Similar legislation has been introduced over the past 10 years, but never gotten this far.
Doriot said he’s hopeful about this bill.
“I think we may get it, but if not, I’ll be back next year,” he said.
Supporters of the bill say it would also bring down auto insurance costs for Hoosiers, who right now are paying higher premiums to cover the costs of undocumented immigrants who get in traffic accidents and don’t have insurance.