County supports driver's license training, safe highways
SAN JOSE – The Day Worker Center in Mountain View is offering an expanded driver’s license training program, supported by Santa Clara County.
Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian secured $30,000 for the program as part of the County’s 2019/2020 budget.
Following the passage of Assembly Bill 60 (AB 60) by the state legislature in 2014, undocumented individuals in California became eligible to take the California driver’s test and receive a driver’s license.
After AB 60 took effect in 2015, Simitian requested funding for the Day Worker Center to train nearly 500 of their workers on the rules of the road and prepare them for their driver’s license test. The new funds will help continue the program, as it continues to be in high demand.
“When the bill was passed, nearly one and a half million undocumented individuals were eligible under AB 60 for driver’s licenses,” Simitian noted. “We need to make sure that these drivers are compliant with the law; and, keep the public safe by making sure that folks who drive are properly trained and licensed to do so.”
“There are more than two million undocumented immigrants in California. I’m pretty sure they haven’t all been walking to work, school, or the grocery store,” said Simitian. “So, I take a very practical view of the matter: putting aside the national debate on immigration, we’ll all be safer if folks who are already driving learn the rules of the road, pass the test, provide contact information, and make themselves eligible for automobile insurance.”
Simitian said he’d, “heard this issue again and again” during his time in the State Legislature and was “constantly frustrated by the extent to which ideological opinions about immigration seemed to override common sense safety considerations.”
“Hopefully, one day, we’ll have comprehensive immigration reform,” said Simitian. “But in the meantime, having unlicensed drivers on California highways helps no one.”
The Day Worker Center is a non-profit organization that supports the day laborer populations of Mountain View, Los Altos, and Sunnyvale, and provides job-matching services for hundreds of local homeowners and businesses annually.