More problems on horizon for troubled Colorado immigrant driver’s license program
Colorado’s driver’s license program for people living in the U.S. illegally has been hobbled since its start three years ago, and efforts to fix and better fund the initiative have been caught in partisan gridlock.
An application backlog, possibly years long for some, is estimated to run in the tens of thousands. Just three Division of Motor Vehicles branches across Colorado offer the licenses, and in a year only one in the Denver area might be left to serve the entire state.
Now things are scheduled to get even worse: During the next few months, the program — which one national observer called a “nightmare scenario” — will send about 11,000 people who need to renew their licenses back into the jam-packed line.
That prospect, advocates say, is making immigrants who are already anxious about their status during the Trump administration unsure about their ability to legally drive, which could leave them facing deportation if pulled over while behind the wheel.
FILE – In this Aug. 1, 2014 file photo, immigrant and longtime resident in the United States Rosalva Mireles is photographed by Jesus Sanchez of Spanish language newspaper El Commercio, after Mireles was processed for her permanent driver’s license, and received a temporary one to use until it is ready, at a Department of Motor Vehicles office, in Denver. Colorado Democrats are decrying a Republican decision to not add funding to a program allowing immigrants to get driver’s licenses regardless of their legal status. There’s been high demand for the program since it launched last year. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, file)
In this Aug. 1, 2014 file photo, immigrant and longtime resident in the United States Rosalva Mireles is photographed by Jesus Sanchez of Spanish language newspaper El Commercio, after Mireles was processed for her permanent driver’s license, and received a temporary one to use until it is ready, at a Department of Motor Vehicles office, in Denver. Colorado Democrats are decrying a Republican decision to not add funding to a program allowing immigrants to get driver’s licenses regardless of their legal status. There’s been high demand for the program since it launched last year. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, file)
