Aliyya Swaby Photo
Morales helps Armijos access his e-mail account at St. Rose.
Rafael Armijos needs to drive to and from his construction job. So he joined other undocumented immigrants flocking to St. Rose of Lima Church Monday to take advantage of a new state policy allowing them to apply for a driver’s license.
Volunteers camped out at the Fair Haven church for eight hours to help people throughout the process of registering to take the Drive Only License written exam, starting Jan. 2.
St. Rose of Lima parishioners and activist group CONECT (Congregations Organized for a New Connecticut) began campaigning for the bill to pass last January, seeking to expand a state law that had only applied to certain young people. People can register to take the exam at the church through Friday.
The program’s main aim is to allow undocumented immigrants throughout the state to obtain licenses, registration and insurance, without endangering their stay in the country. CONECT estimates that 54,000 people are eligible to take advantage of it.
“We need to know that everyone driving is safe,” said Cecilio Cuapio, a CONECT organizer. With legitimate licenses, undocumented immigrants have one more protection against racial profiling and false arrests, the premise of a series of indictments of East Haven cops in 2012.
One of four volunteers at the registration table, CONECT organizer Armando Morales (above left), taught Armijos how to check his e‑mail to retrieve details about his exam. Armijos, who came to the United States from Ecuador 10 years ago, had created his first e‑mail account just that evening, with the help of the volunteers at the church.
Armijos brought his passport and a rent bill in his name, for identification. To take the test, he will need two forms of identification and two different letters for proof of address. He paid $59 to register.
Morales handed him a white rectangular slip of paper with his e‑mail, password and Department of Motor Vehicles personal identification number. “Con esto puede chequear su cita o hacer un cambio,” he told Armijos. “With this [PIN] you can check your date or change it.”
He reminded Armijos that he had to “study the manual” and go to eight hours of driving school before he could take the test in late January.
Morales estimated he had registered about 20 people in four hours. The system was slow on the first day of registration.
Some people flew through the process. Paco Cumbicos (pictured) showed up with his daughter Natali (pictured), a fifth-grader at Columbus Academy, and seemed to be finished in relatively little time. When asked why he chose to register for the exam, he said a license would make it easier to take his children to appointments.
But other people saw a few snags.
Paulina Monter (pictured) had brought a prepaid debit card to pay the $59 fee, but ended up spending more than 10 minutes on the phone with a customer service representative in order to activate it. Cuapio made an announcement reminding others to activate their prepaid cards as they waited to be called to a computer.
By about 7 p.m., church volunteers had to tell a long list of people to return the next day, since they would not get to registering them in the next hour.
The Connecticut Department of Vehicles is taking precautions to prepare for the increase in traffic.
“We have hired additional staff and have allotted 600 to 700 spaces per week for the Drive Only applicant pool throughout the state,” said state DMV spokesman William Seymour. By 4 p.m. Monday, about 1,500 statewide had made an appointment to take the test, he said.
Organizers did not have an exact number of people who registered in New Haven on the first day, Monday. Volunteer Eric Armenta said he estimated the number was “approaching 100.”
Armenta (pictured above) said he knows many people who have been racially profiled, pulled over by the police and found to be lacking licenses. They got their cars confiscated and struggled to go to work or take their children to school.
With the program, there will be fewer injustices, he said.
Marcelino Cargua (pictured) arrived at the church with a friend at around 6:10 p.m., seeking to register because he needs to drive for his job in demolition.
Getting a license is important, he said, “to not have problems under the law.”
Cargua waited in line to get a number to register, but was told just before 7 p.m. that he would not make the cutoff. He said he would definitely return the next day.