Bills in Arizona's House and Senate look to provide driver's licenses to all

PHOENIX - A local nonprofit is calling on Arizona state legislators to "allow driver's licenses to all."

HB 2604 and SB1587, if passed, would give all Arizona residents a chance to receive a driver's license regardless of legal status. The two bills are called "mirror bills" as they were brought up in the House and Senate at the same time.

An undocumented student at Arizona State, Maria Garcia, explains how this would impact her, saying, "It expands to a lot of people like myself and my parents. It's more of a safety thing for me and for the roads of Arizona."

Garcia is a Dreamer, double majoring in political science and transborder studies.

"I'm undocumented, I'm a Dreamer, I never got DACA. DACA would give me a driver's license, a form of identification, and it just gives me that safety that I haven't had," Garcia said.

Specifically, safety on the roads when Garcia is driving to and from school.

"My biggest concern is I have to drive, I have to go to school. I have to go to my doctor's appointments. It's just, I don't know if the police will pull me over, what will happen because I can't get deported," she said.

Arizona House Representative Flavio Bravo, who represents central west Phoenix and Glendale is one of 18 sponsors of HB 2604.

"If this does not pass, we face the continued status quo that people are driving unlicensed, uninsured and that's unsafe," Bravo said.

Aliento, a nonprofit organization for the immigrant community, has the same argument.

"I think this would be good for Arizona. We have seen when we're able to revise driver's licenses for a population, in this case, DACA recipients, that really allows us to have more transparency and more trust across law enforcement and then why are we creating specific barriers for people to just drive safely," the nonprofit's spokesperson said.

Again, these bills are in the beginning stages. The next steps would be to assign it to a committee.