Group Renewing Push For Driver's Licenses For Illegal Immigrants
(CBS) -- Supporters of a plan to let illegal immigrants get Illinois drivers' licenses hope last week's election results will finally make it happen.
WBBM Newsradio's Regine Schlesinger reports the idea to allow illegal immigrants to get a driver's licenses has been floating around Springfield for at least 14 years. All efforts have failed, and for the first eight years, the proposal never made it out of committee.
But those who support the plan, like Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran, said last week's repudiation of Republican candidates by Hispanic voters makes the idea much more likely to become reality.
Curran, a Democrat turned Republican, said, "I can tell you we have some serious demographic problems, and we're done. Put a fork in the Republican Party nationally, put a fork in them everywhere if they put up the walls and send a message, 'Latino, Polish, immigrant community: you are not welcome.'"
Curran and others who belong to the Highway Safety Coalition have said the plan is a sensible way of reducing the number of illegal immigrants who are driving without insurance, or the knowledge of the rules of the road that would come with legally obtaining a driver's license.
LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio's Regine Schlesinger Reports
