Oregon Senate Passes Driver’s Card Legislation and Delivers Victory to Latino Community

Senate Bill 833 is a public safety measure designed to improve traffic safety and reduce the number of unlicensed and uninsured motorists on Oregon’s roads. The legislation creates a temporary Driver’s Card.

“This is the largest victory for Latino families, Causa, our allies and our movement in Oregon history”, said Luis Guerra, spokesperson for Causa Oregon. “The work that went into passage of SB833 is due to the dedication and hard work of a broad coalition of bipartisan legislators, civic leaders, law enforcement and organizations from the immigrant rights, legal, business, faith, education and health communities.”

Guerra added, “We expect our strategy in building this broad coalition needed to pass SB833 in Oregon to be a model for other states with similar driver’s card legislation pending like Maryland and California.”

Passage of SB833 comes at an important time while the U.S. Congress is taking up Comprehensive Immigration Reform at the Federal level.

Guerra concluded, “Once Congress passes an Immigration Reform Bill, there will still be a year or more before immigrants will be able to benefit from it.  SB833 provides relief for our families here in Oregon who are suffering and need to get to work, drive their children to school and to the doctor.”

SB833 will be signed by Governor Kitzhaber tomorrow (May 1st) during a special ceremony at the May Day Rally on the steps of the Oregon State Capitol in Salem.  Once signed into law, the bill will take affect after January 1, 2014.  Individuals wishing to apply for the driver’s cards at the DMV will need to wait until after January 1, 2014 to do so.

ABOUT SENATE BILL 833
Senate Bill 833 is a public safety measure designed to improve traffic safety and reduce the number of unlicensed and uninsured motorists on Oregon’s roads. The legislation creates a temporary Driver’s Card.

The Oregon Driver Card (ODC) is a new document designed to keep our roads safe by allowing individuals, who do not have the documentation to access Oregon Driver’s Licenses, to get licensed and insured. Such individuals include:

1. Elderly, who were born at home rather at a hospital, and cannot, provide a birth certificate.
2. Emerging homeless, to re-enter the workforce and society, although it requires all applicants to prove residency in Oregon for at least a year.
3. Veterans, it would permit our decorated and honorable servicemen and servicewomen to use their military documents in the application process.
4. Undocumented Oregonians and workers.

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