The state House of Representatives on Wednesday once again voted to pass a bill that would repeal the state law that allows undocumented immigrants to get New Mexico driver's licenses.

The bill, strongly supported by Republican Gov. Susana Martinez but labeled a wedge issue by some Democratic opponents, now goes to the Senate.

The Senate last year heavily amended a similar House bill, effectively killing it, and many expect that to happen again.

Following a nearly four-hour debate, the House voted 45-25 to pass House Bill 103, sponsored by Rep. Andy Nuñez, I-Hatch.

Wednesday's vote represented a larger margin of support for repeal in the House than last year. Three Democrats who voted against last year's bill -- Rep. Nick Salazar of Española, Henry "Kiki" Saavedra of Albuquerque and George Dodge of Santa Rosa -- voted for HB 103.

A total of 11 Democrats joined all 34 House Republicans and independent Nuñez in backing the bill.

Santa Fe's delegation -- House Speaker Ben Luján, Luciano "Lucky" Varela, Jim Trujillo and Brian Egolf -- all voted against the bill. All four are Democrats.

Elsa Lopez, an activist with Somos un Pueblo Unido, a local immigrant-rights organization, said her group wasn't surprised by the vote. Though she hopes the Senate will once again stop the proposal, she said people in the immigrant community fear that the bill is only the first one to be aimed at immigrants. "It starts with driver's licenses," she said, noting that years before Arizona passed a controversial law on checking a person's immigration status, the state had stopped issuing driver's licenses to those who can't prove their U.S. citizenship.

The Arizona law requires police officers to check the immigration status of individuals whom they've stopped and for whom they have "reasonable suspicion" of being in the United States illegally.

Supporters of the House bill rejected the argument. "This is not about immigration, it's only about public safety," the governor's chief of staff, Keith Gardner, told reporters shortly after the vote. He said the administration won't push a law like Arizona's. "There's no desire to do immigration law," he said. "The governor has said in public that we're not in the business of doing immigration law."

Nuñez said the same thing. "The Arizona law is too harsh," he said.

Opponents of the bill have said for more than a year that Martinez is pushing the issue for political reasons, specifically to use against Democratic lawmakers who vote against it.

"This is about fear, hate and politics," Rep. Moe Maestas, D-Albuquerque, said during Wednesday's floor debate. He said the bill is meant to capitalize on anti-immigrant sentiment, which he said has been on the rise since the recession began in 2008.

The governor and her allies deny this.

But Martinez, since she began her campaign for governor, has been upfront in citing public opinion polls that show support for repealing the license provision. And she has said several times that opponents will have to face their constituents if they vote against the bill.

Rep. Al Park, D-Albuquerque, voted for Nuñez's bill, as he did last year. "I am going to vote the will of my district," Park said in a text message to a reporter during the debate. Park is not seeking re-election but is running for a Public Regulation Commission seat.

Despite the emotional nature of the issue, some opponents of the bill noted that Wednesday's debate was far less heated than last year's.

During the debate, Democrats unsuccessfully tried to pass a substitute bill, which is similar to the legislation the Senate passed last year. It would have allowed an undocumented immigrant to get a driver's license but would have imposed several restrictions, including a requirement that applicants be fingerprinted.

Egolf, noting that the Senate isn't likely to pass Nuñez's bill, said the only real hope for dealing with fraud and other problems related to issuing licenses to undocumented applicants would be passage of the substitute version.

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday voted along party lines on a bill similar to the House substitute. (Democrats supported it, Republicans were opposed.) However, Wednesday's vote shows it's highly unlikely that Senate Bill 235, sponsored by Senate President Pro Tem Tim Jennings, D-Roswell, would pass the House. And Martinez has vowed to veto such a measure.

Martinez's campaign committee last year spent more than $5,000 on radio ads urging people to call their legislators and tell them to support the driver's license bill. The state Republican Party paid for robo-calls for the same purpose.

This year, there was no such a campaign, though Martinez's political-action committee paid for full-color mailers before the session that mentioned the driver's license issue, among several others.

Correction : 2-13-2012 7 :13 p.m. This article has been updated to more accurately describe Arizona's move several years ago to deny illegal immigrants driver's licenses.

Contact Steve Terrell at 986-3037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com. Read his political blog at roundhouseroundup.com.




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