Driver’s License Bill Clears the House On the Way to Allowing Undocumented Immigrants to Drive in Oregon

House Bill 2015 moved on to the Senate with 39 votes.

Traffic in Salem, Ore. (Oregon Department of Transportation)
By Katie Shepherd
A bill that would allow undocumented residents to obtain an Oregon driver’s license cleared the state House of Representatives June 18.
House Bill 2015 passed out of the House with 39 votes.
The bill will move on to the Oregon Senate. It is the latest in an effort to help undocumented people get driver’s licenses.
Oregonians could get driver’s licenses without proving U.S. citizenship until 2008. Lawmakers relaxed the requirement again in 2013, but an anti-immigration group campaigned to have voters weigh in on the issue through a ballot measure.
Two-thirds of Oregon voters rejected the policy, leaving about 100,000 undocumented immigrants in the state unable to drive.

That activist group, Oregonians for Immigration Reform, has hinted that it would refer this bill to the ballot as well.

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