KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – While the immigration issue continues to rage nationwide, Michigan Democrats say there is a way to make life easier for illegal immigrants here: let them get driver’s licenses again. This past week, both the Kalamazoo city and county commissions approved resolutions encouraging state lawmakers to reverse a 2008 measure that required U.S. citizenship or legal immigrant status to obtain a state license. It was one of a series of post-9/11 actions. For the immigrants, just the act of driving now risks deportation. Two long time but illegal residents say they risk deportation doing things everyone else takes for granted.
It makes it difficult for them to bank, to obtain prescription drugs and creates a host of other problems. City Commissioner Esteven Juarez says people who look like him should not have to fear living here.
Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller also endorsed the resolution.
The bills have been introduced in Lansing again this year, and while Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt of Van Buren County says Republicans still oppose it, Democratic majorities in both chambers give it its best chance of passage.
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