Judge Halts License Reviews

SANTA FE — A state district judge has put the brakes on Gov. Susana Martinez’s controversial review of the residency status of foreign nationals with New Mexico driver’s licenses

While immigrant rights advocates touted District Judge Sarah Singleton’s Wednesday ruling as an important step, Martinez’s office described it as par for the course.

“This procedural step is fairly standard as the court examines the residency certification program,” Martinez spokesman Scott Darnell said.

The ruling to stop the program until further review came one week after a national Latino civil rights group, along with local attorneys, filed a lawsuit against the Martinez administration on behalf of four Democratic state lawmakers and a Silver City woman.

The suit targeted the initiative launched by Martinez that’s aimed at verifying the residency status of 10,000 foreign nationals with in-state licenses. The Motor Vehicle Division has asked the selected license-holders to travel to Albuquerque or Las Cruces to submit proof of residency or face revocation of their driving privileges.

Critics of the initiative claim the Martinez administration lacks the authority to conduct the residency review and is violating the constitutional rights of the individuals who received mandatory participation letters.

Albuquerque attorney David Urias, one of the lawyers who filed the lawsuit, said Singleton’s temporary restraining order shows the case is being taken seriously.

“I think what the judge is doing here is giving herself some time to weigh the arguments,” Urias told the Journal. “When an executive branch takes it upon themselves to enact a program the Legislature didn’t authorize, it’s always going to raise the eyebrows of the judiciary.”

In her order, Singleton temporarily barred Taxation and Revenue Secretary Demesia Padilla, whose agency oversees the Motor Vehicle Division, from continuing the initiative and from canceling any previously issued driver’s licenses.

If the program is allowed to continue, “Irreparable injury will occur in the form of constitutional deprivations,” Singleton wrote in the order.

However, the practical implications of the order could be reduced by the fact that Wednesday marked the last day of the first round of appointments for license-holders seeking to show their proof of in-state residency.

Martinez has pushed to repeal the 2003 law that allows illegal immigrants to obtain New Mexico driver’s licenses, arguing the law makes the state a magnet for individuals seeking to get licenses fraudulently.

Senate Democrats thwarted a repeal attempt earlier this year, instead backing a proposal to toughen the current law’s requirements, but Martinez plans to include the issue on the agenda of a special session on redistricting that begins next week.

The residency review — in which 10,000 of the approximately 85,000 foreign nationals who had received licenses under the 2003 law were randomly selected — is expected to play a leading role in that debate.

“In the absence of the Legislature acting to put an end to the program that provides driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, the governor has the responsibility to identify and attempt to curb the dangerous fraud and identity theft that is inherent in it,” Darnell said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Marcela Diaz, the director of the Santa Fe-based immigrant rights group Somos Un Pueblo Unido, called the review a “bullying tactic” intended to threaten and intimidate selected individuals.

The next step in the case will be a Sept. 13 injunction hearing in Singleton’s courtroom in Santa Fe.