Citizenship proof may be needed for license

WASHINGTON – Senate negotiators accepted a House plan on Monday to make states verify that driver’s license applicants are U.S. citizens or legal immigrants but softened House-proposed changes in asylum laws.

Under the legislation, Americans applying for driver’s licenses will have to bring far more information with them to motor vehicle offices. Each applicant will be asked to show a birth certificate, photo ID, proof of Social Security number and a document with full name and home address, according to a copy of the bill obtained by the Associated Press.

The immigration measures are part of a bill to pay for continuing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Still unresolved is how much more money to spend on border security.

Congressional aides, speaking on condition of anonymity, said negotiators still are apart on provisions that would devote $4 million each to a fire science academy in Elko, Nev., and environment cleanup of a former Energy Department site in New Mexico.

Also in dispute was about $600 million in the Senate version of the bill to hire 1,000 new border patrol officers and other immigration agents and provide 2,000 new beds for detainees.

Tentative deals have been reached to provide roughly $75 billion for defense-related costs and construction of a new U.S. embassy in Baghdad.

The legislation won’t be final until the House and Senate vote on it. The House could take it up later this week, but the Senate won’t vote until after it reconvenes May 9.

The immigration restrictions have White House backing and could help President Bush win support for a temporary worker program that he has said should include illegal immigrants already in the country. House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., had pressed for the restrictions, saying they would enhance border security and were needed independent of other immigration reforms.

Governors and state motor vehicle departments had opposed the driver’s license provisions as too costly. They also complained state motor vehicle officials will be forced to take on the role of immigration officers.

Civil-liberties and gun-rights supporters opposed the measure on privacy grounds, saying they fear driver’s licenses will evolve into national identification cards.

Motor vehicle departments will be required to verify the documents and the Social Security numbers. States still could give licenses to illegal immigrants, but they would have different designs or colors to alert security officers that they are unacceptable as IDs for boarding planes or entering federal buildings.

States will have three years after the bill becomes law to meet the standards or their driver’s licenses won’t be accepted by federal officers for identification.

All but one of the 19 hijackers in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks had some form of U.S. identification, some of it fraudulent, the Sept. 11 Commission found. The commission recommended the federal government set standards for birth certificates and other identification documents, including driver’s licenses.

Provisions that would make it easier for judges to reject asylum claims and force asylum applicants to meet a higher standard of proof also survived negotiations. However, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., persuaded colleagues to restore appeal opportunities for asylum seekers and to limit judges’ discretion to reject an asylum claim based solely on the applicant’s credibility or demeanor.

The bill is HR1268.