Martinez Wants 10,000 To Prove Residency To Keep Driver’s Licenses

The immigration debate could soon enter the national spotlight again.

This time in New Mexico, where Gov. Susana Martinez wants 10,000 foreign nationals to prove they are legal residents of the state.

New Mexico is one of just three states that grants driver’s licenses regardless of immigration status, a measure passed by the previous governor, Bill Richardson.

Martinez is completely against it, but last year failed to repeal the law.

A random sample of 10,000 foreign nationals is required to show up at the Motor Vehicle Division in Las Cruces or Albuquerque — depending on demand — to prove they do in fact live in New Mexico legally.

“Because it’s random, in some ways it’s better than actually looking up people, like, profiling them to go. But I still think it’s wrong,” one woman said outside the MVD in Las Cruces.

Others say, they think it is about time for a verification system.

“If they don’t live here, why should they be getting licenses in New Mexico? They should prove it like everybody else,” another woman said. “They should check them and if it’s not valid, then make it invalid and don’t let them get a license because there’s a lot of people coming from other states getting licenses, and why should New Mexico be one of those?”

Currently, nearly 35 percent of New Mexico driver’s licenses issued correspond with telephone area codes registered outside of the state, Martinez said.

“How many non-residents have come to New Mexico for the sole purpose of getting our driver’s licenses and going elsewhere to do who knows what with it,” said Scott Darnell, Martinez’s spokesman for Martinez.

An ad provided by the governor’s office to ABC-7 was featured in a Spanish-language New York City newspaper. It advises people how they can get a New Mexico driver’s license, without ever stepping foot in the state.

The man behind the ad has since been arrested and the licenses obtained, have been canceled.

“We’ve seen, just in the past few months, fraud rings uncovered from throughout the world where people are paying $500 to $6,000 to be trafficked into New Mexico to get New Mexico driver’s license,” Darnell said.

The verification system is a public safety effort to eliminate fraud, Martinez said, and is not a road to deportation.

“No one will be deported from the Motor Vehicle Department Office,” Martinez said. “No one will. … That’s not the goal of sending out the 10,000 random letters.”

Others disagree.

“A lot of people think the governor is doing this to pad numbers, so she can say, ‘Oh look, thousands of people didn’t show up, they are all terrorists.’ She made it almost impossible to comply,” said Cristina Parker, a spokeswoman for the Border Network for Human Rights.

Martinez emphasized that a letter cannot be ignored if received. Upon receiving a letter, a call must be placed to the MVD to set up an appointment. Individuals will then be sent to the MVD in Las Cruces or in Albuquerque, at which time he or she will be required to present the original documentation used to obtain their driver’s license.

If documents come back fraudulent, the individual will receive a notification letter in the mail that their license has been canceled.