Melissa Bailey Photo
Maria Cuatepotzo, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, wants a driver’s license so badly that she waited an hour in the cold, then squeezed into an overflow room in a cafeteria, to listen in on a packed hearing with state lawmakers.
She was one of an estimated 2,000 people who flooded Wilbur Cross High School Monday night to call on the state to pass one of three bills that would allow undocumented immigrants to apply for driver’s licenses.
The public hearing, hosted by the Transportation Committee, drew so many supporters that the crowd quickly surpassed the auditorium. Organizers ran wires into the school gymnasium and cafeteria to accommodate the crowds. Not one person spoke against the proposal during the nearly five-hour meeting.
At 7:30 p.m., an hour after the event began, two hundred people stood waiting at the entrance of the school on Mitchell Drive. Assistant Chief of Police Luiz Casanova said the city was getting a third overflow room ready. He said the crowd vastly exceeded expectations: about 400 people were expected and 2,000 showed up. He said no one was turned away.
Cuatepotzo showed up with her husband, Ricardo Romero. They waited outside for an hour before taking a seat in a small cafeteria, where organizers had set up two large speakers to broadcast the hearing.
Cuatepotzo (pictured) took a seat at a small, round cafeteria chair and listened in. She said she sometimes uses a car to take her kids to school in Hamden. Her husband, Ricardo Romero, relies on a car to make the 45-minute commute to Darien, where he paints houses. Cuatepotzo said they drive in fear of deportation.
Like many of the immigrants present Monday, Cuatepotzo heard about the event through her church.
Congregations Organized for a New Connecticut (CONECT), which represents 27 congregations across the state, drew at least 550 parishioners to the event, according to co-chair Father James Manship (pictured), pastor of St. Rose of Lima Church in Fair Haven and an outspoken activist for immigrant rights.
Manship said about 18 months ago, hundreds of parishioners gathered to discuss matters facing the Latino community. They said the lack of a driver’s license was a top concern “keeping them up at night.” CONECT proceeded launch a campaign for driver’s licenses. First, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy agreed to let “DREAMers,” young immigrants whose parents took them to the U.S. illegally as kids, apply for driver’s licenses if they got “deferred action,” a two-year reprieve from deportation, from the federal government.
Three states, New Mexico, Washington and Illinois, already allow undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses. Legislation is pending in four more states, Manship said.
In Connecticut, three bills have been proposed: Two in the Senate, from Sens. Martin Looney and Joseph Crisco, Jr., and one in the House, from New Haven Rep. Juan Candelaria.
Candelaria (pictured) said the bill is still in the concept phase; the text has yet to be written out.
While individual immigrants talked about driving in fear of deportation, organizers and legislators focused on one main talking point: “public safety.” If undocumented immigrants are allowed to get licenses, Candelaria argued, they will get the training that other drivers do before getting behind the wheel, making the streets safer.
Candelaria said the proposal has a financial benefit, too. He said early estimates show 75,000 undocumented immigrants would be eligible for driver’s licenses. If they all apply, the state could reap $3 million in driver’s license fees, plus another $6.75 million in registration fees, not to mention local property tax, he said.
Yale Law School students who researched the proposal through the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization came up with more conservative estimates: They predicted 54,000 immigrants who are eligible to apply for the licenses would generate $2 million in registration fees the first year, according to law student intern Kendall Hoechst.
The proposal would spur undocumented immigrants to buy car insurance, which would result in a savings of $20 million across the state for purchasers, Hoechst said. That’s because premiums depend on the number of uninsured drivers out there, which would ostensibly drop.
Some undocumented immigrants already have Connecticut licenses, Hoechst noted: Before 1994, the state allowed drivers to apply for licenses regardless of immigration status. Now only drivers with legal permission to be in the U.S. can apply.
Hoechst said the proposal has other public safety benefits: Drivers will be more likely to stay at the scene of a crash if they have a license. They’ll be more likely to report crimes to the police, because they won’t fear deportation.
The proposal “has all of the benefits of the Elm City ID and more,” she said.
Manuel Solano said he needs a car to get to work, and to take his kids to the hospital and school.
She was referring to New Haven’s immigrant-friendly municipal ID, which Mayor John DeStefano unveiled in 2007 in response to a request from the Latino community. The ID card, available to all residents regardless of immigration status, aimed in part to make immigrants more comfortable calling the police to report crimes.
DeStefano said Monday he has never received so much hate mail as he did when he launched that ID card. Five years later, “none of us could think of a better” way to recognize immigrants as part of the city and improve public safety. He called extending driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants “a positive and meaningful step forward.”
“I urge you to do it,” he said.
Melody Currey, the state commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles, called the proposal “workable.” She stuck around to hear dozens of personal stories.
“Today, I’m here for my parents,” said Carolina Bortolleto, an outspoken immigrant activist with CT Students for a DREAM.
“I know the fear my parents feel when they drive.” When her mom sees a cop car, she said, her mom gets worried: “If the police stops us, we’re going to be deported.” She pulls over — anywhere, into a coffee shop or strip mall — to duck out of sight. Her parents rely on the car to get to work, the grocery store and to the pharmacy, she said.
Malloy has already extended driver’s licenses to young immigrants like Camila. She urged the state to “extend these driver’s licenses to all undocumented workers in the state.”
As speakers took the microphone inside the auditorium, other supporters milled in the hallways. Some listened quietly on the bleachers in the gym. Children played in a pagoda stationed in Cross’s hallway. The crew included not just New Haveners, but immigrants from across the state, including a large group organized through the Hartford archdiocese.
Between fielding questions on his bill in the hallway, State Rep. Candelaria surveyed the crowd.
With the presence of so many immigrants in those halls, he said, “a loud message has been sent.”