· February 28, 2013

House to consider fix to immigrant drivers licensing issue

Earlier this month we blogged about the facts that the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles has failed to uniformly implement federal guidelines regarding the issuance of driver’s license to young immigrants who qualify under President Obama’s new Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Since early February, at least a dozen media outlets have reported about the difficulties young immigrants are experiencing at BMV locations across the state as a result of conflicting guidance from the Kasich administration. Since those reports, requests made to attorneys with the Ohio Department of Public Safety for a specific time frame within which a decision on this issue might be made have gone unanswered. Fortunately, two lawmakers are taking the concerns of Ohio’s immigrant community seriously. State Reps. Reece and Ramos are seeking a legislative solution to the problem in the form of an amendment to the Public Safety budget (HB 35) that would require BMV to comply with the applicable federal guidelines. They are set to introduce the amendment at the House floor session taking place this afternoon.