Bishops: let undocumented immigrants have driver's licenses

It’s the bishops of New Mexico, and they wrote about it yesterday.

Details:

Allowing undocumented immigrants living in New Mexico to have a driver’s license if they can provide a valid ID is a matter of “mercy, fairness and safety,” said the state’s three Catholic bishops.

“We are in favor of allowing individuals without Social Security numbers to obtain licenses provided that they present other acceptable forms of identification, such as a valid passport, consular identification card, or other recognized government-issued documents, currently required by present law,” they said.

“We believe this is in the interest of all New Mexicans,” said Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan of Santa Fe and Bishops Ricardo Ramirez of Las Cruces and James S. Wall of Gallup in a statement published Aug. 17 as an op-ed piece in the Albuquerque Journal daily newspaper.

It was released Aug. 15 in Santa Fe by the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops, the public policy arm of the bishops.

The three Catholic leaders said they support the positive contributions immigrants have brought to New Mexico and the rest of the country but at the same time recognize the right of the United States to regulate its borders and control immigration.

The bishops said they understand people’s frustration that the illegal status of some immigrants in the United States and the lack of action on comprehensive immigration reform at the federal level, reform that is of “enormous importance.” But laws and public policies must treat immigrants with justice and dignity, they added.

Read more about it.

And read the bishops’ op-ed piece right here.