A week before California driver’s licenses will be made available to
undocumented immigrants, the Department of Motor Vehicles is getting
ready for a traffic jam of applications.
DMV has hired more than 900 new employees to handle the influx of new applicants and will be adding about 100 more in the coming weeks, said DMV spokesman Jaime Garza.
The agency has opened four temporary offices -- none in the Inland area -- and plans to open some offices on Saturdays. The cost to issue driver’s licenses to people in the country illegally is expected to top $140 million over the next three years.
An estimated 1.4 million undocumented immigrants are eligible for the licenses, which have special wording on the front to clarify that “federal limits apply” and a statement on the back that the licenses do not establish eligibility for voting, employment or public benefits. The legislature approved the new licenses last year.
Jan. 2 is the first day that undocumented immigrants can apply for the licenses. In the two and a half weeks after appointments for 2015 were first accepted on Nov. 12, more than twice as many people made appointments for new driver’s licenses as did so during the same time period last year, Garza said.
The procedure and fee to obtain a license is the same for undocumented immigrants as it is for anyone else, except for the type of documentation required, Garza said.
Applicants must pass a written exam and vision test before they legally can practice driving with a licensed driver for a behind-the-wheel test.
Some Inland driving schools already are receiving queries about courses. Leo Glass, co-owner of G & G Driving School in Lake Elsinore, said his business has received about half a dozen calls about classes. He had expected more.
Luz Gallegos, community programs director of TODEC Legal Center in Perris, an immigrant-assistance agency, said even though immigrants are busy studying for the written exam, she predicted that few will need to take driving classes.
“They’ve been driving for years” without a license, she said. “They have the knowledge. People already have been teaching each other.”
Leticia and Adolfo Luna of Perris have been driving since shortly after arriving in the United States from Guadalajara 15 years ago. But they always have to worry about being pulled over for driving without a license.
“Whenever I drive, I always have a lot of fear, especially when I see a police car in the mirror,” Leticia Luna said in Spanish. “I start shaking.”
Luna, 43, said police took away her car three times between 2011 and 2013 because she didn’t have a license. She said that each time she was stopped, it was for a non-existent violation. Luna said she paid a total of $9,000 in fines and storage fees to retrieve her car.
“Now if the police stop me, they won’t take my car,” she said. “It won’t cost me a lot of money.”
Luna said she needs to drive to take her youngest son to school, go grocery shopping and perform other errands. Adolfo Lopez, 46, a musician, said he needs the car to drive to events at which he performs.
DMV has hired more than 900 new employees to handle the influx of new applicants and will be adding about 100 more in the coming weeks, said DMV spokesman Jaime Garza.
The agency has opened four temporary offices -- none in the Inland area -- and plans to open some offices on Saturdays. The cost to issue driver’s licenses to people in the country illegally is expected to top $140 million over the next three years.
An estimated 1.4 million undocumented immigrants are eligible for the licenses, which have special wording on the front to clarify that “federal limits apply” and a statement on the back that the licenses do not establish eligibility for voting, employment or public benefits. The legislature approved the new licenses last year.
Jan. 2 is the first day that undocumented immigrants can apply for the licenses. In the two and a half weeks after appointments for 2015 were first accepted on Nov. 12, more than twice as many people made appointments for new driver’s licenses as did so during the same time period last year, Garza said.
The procedure and fee to obtain a license is the same for undocumented immigrants as it is for anyone else, except for the type of documentation required, Garza said.
Applicants must pass a written exam and vision test before they legally can practice driving with a licensed driver for a behind-the-wheel test.
Some Inland driving schools already are receiving queries about courses. Leo Glass, co-owner of G & G Driving School in Lake Elsinore, said his business has received about half a dozen calls about classes. He had expected more.
Luz Gallegos, community programs director of TODEC Legal Center in Perris, an immigrant-assistance agency, said even though immigrants are busy studying for the written exam, she predicted that few will need to take driving classes.
“They’ve been driving for years” without a license, she said. “They have the knowledge. People already have been teaching each other.”
Leticia and Adolfo Luna of Perris have been driving since shortly after arriving in the United States from Guadalajara 15 years ago. But they always have to worry about being pulled over for driving without a license.
“Whenever I drive, I always have a lot of fear, especially when I see a police car in the mirror,” Leticia Luna said in Spanish. “I start shaking.”
Luna, 43, said police took away her car three times between 2011 and 2013 because she didn’t have a license. She said that each time she was stopped, it was for a non-existent violation. Luna said she paid a total of $9,000 in fines and storage fees to retrieve her car.
“Now if the police stop me, they won’t take my car,” she said. “It won’t cost me a lot of money.”
Luna said she needs to drive to take her youngest son to school, go grocery shopping and perform other errands. Adolfo Lopez, 46, a musician, said he needs the car to drive to events at which he performs.