City Council Meeting Date: April 2, 2019
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Ben Martig, City Administrator
Title
Consider Resolution of Support Driver's License for all Legislation in Minnesota.
Body
Action Requested:
The Northfield City Council approves Resolution of Support Driver's License for all Legislation in Minnesota.
Summary Report:
The Human Rights Commission held a meeting on March 14 and passed a motion of support for current "Driving Licenses for All" legislation and recommended the City Council pass an action of support as well. If enacted, Minnesota would join a growing list of states that allow their residents to get a license without regard to legal immigration status.
Minnesota Department of Human Rights Commissioner Rebecca Lucero was at the Human Rights Commission meeting and presented information on the bill (HF1500 see hyperlink attachment) and also answered questions. There currently is no Senate companion bill for this legislation and at the time of the Human Rights Commission meeting there was some doubt on whether there would be support in the Senate to bring action this session.
The Commissioner has been one of the testifiers in the ongoing hearings in support of the driving licenses campaign at the Minnesota House (see hyperlink attachment to the MN Legislative page).
I am attaching two documents related to the Driving Licenses for All. One is an article in the Pioneer Press that has background information on the history of what we have drivers without licenses in Minnesota and the Immigrant Law Center Fact Sheet where it showcases what will happen if all drivers without licenses would have them back.
Everybody in Minnesota, independently of their immigration status, were able to have a driving license. All of it went away as a result of a push for increase security following the 9 11 attacks. Governor Ventura started to explore this and it was implemented by Governor Pawlenty as an executive order in 2003. The order took ...
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