Yolanda Vega, who came to the U.S. illegally in search of a better life, doesn’t have a driver’s license, yet six days a week she travels miles from the trailer she shares with her husband and teenage daughter outside Durango to clean homes much larger than her own.
Vega, 32, relies on her husband to drive her to work, using a license he obtained years earlier in New Mexico.
Presently, Colorado law makes it impossible for people like her to obtain a driver’s license, but a law passed in the state legislature in 2013 is meant to change that, starting Aug. 1.
Hearing that she was eligible for a license under that law, Vega was elated.
“It’s important because if you have an accident or something, you would have your license,” she told The Denver Post in an interview translated by her daughter. “I could drive to work.”
But Vega, who came from Chihuahua, Mexico, will not be getting a driver’s license anytime soon. Vega is one of as many as 150,000 people in Colorado illegally who may be seeking a driver’s license under the new law, activists say. However, what those in the immigrant community see as problems with the program have made it difficult for potential applicants to sign up.
Only five locations of the state’s 56 licensing centers will be issuing the cards — and by appointment only. For applicants like Vega, the dearth of offices and the appointment-only system means months to years of waiting and hours-long drives.
Complicating matters, only a little over four full-time and 13 temporary positions have been added statewide to directly deal with the influx of customers that the law promises to bring. The locations are offering a few dozen appointments daily to issue the licenses, and the Internet and phone scheduling systems slated to organize the demand were so overwhelmed by traffic that both shut down on July 1 after opening as part of a test rollout.
Some people could be waiting more than 3½ years before an appointment is available, given the number of expected applicants and available appointment slots. The estimate is a best-case scenario where all appointment slots are used and the population of potential applicants doesn’t grow. The licenses themselves are valid for three years.
Meanwhile, the department, which has had a year to prepare for the new program’s start, has yet to translate Colorado’s driver’s manual into Spanish. Officials say translated manuals are coming soon, warning that they’ve heard handbooks not officially released by the department are being sold on the black market and may not be accurate. Applicants are responsible for bringing their own translators to the DMV, and they must be licensed drivers.
“It’s chaos,” said Gabriela Flora, a regional organizer for the American Friends Service Committee and one of the law’s supporters who has helped oversee the legislation since its introduction.
Making roads safer
The licenses are meant to ensure that applicants know how to drive and are familiar with Colorado law. They also allow recipients to obtain insurance and, law enforcement officials say, should make Colorado’s roads safer for all drivers by cutting down on traffic violations, including hit-and-runs.
“It would be great if we could be licensed so we don’t have to drive around with the fear that something might happen to us or that anything would happen to anybody else that doesn’t have a license,” Vega said.
State officials now struggling with the rollout blame a lack of funding. While the state did provide some startup funds — for legal counsel, computer services and document design — the legislation states that beyond an initial $436,292, applicants are to be assessed an additional licensing fee “to cover the direct and indirect cost of implementing” the law.
Thus, licensees are charged an extra $30 to pay for the program.
Officials hoped July’s early scheduling rollout — offered, DMV officials say, as a courtesy — would show any weaknesses in the system, said Barbara Brohl, executive director of the Department of Revenue. Brohl said the agency decided to issue licenses by appointment only to avoid a mad rush of tens of thousands of applicants.
But on July 1, more than 8,900 calls an hour and 107,000 Internet page views crashed the appointment system.
And within the first seven days of scheduling, more than 60 days of appointments were filled.
Users schedule appointments three months in advance, which is standard for anyone who wants to make appointments with the agency. A result is that a new appointment day is added each morning — creating a rush for slots each day. However, some people in the U.S. illegally have shown up at DMVs despite the scheduling requirement, thinking that they can walk in and obtain a license.
The limited number of locations and employees for the program is due to budgeting restrictions that are part of the bill, Brohl said.
The five offices are slated to open in Denver, Aurora, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins and Grand Junction, leaving rural communities in western corners of the state, as well as the Eastern Plains, virtually unserved. Some people in the Denver area have resorted to scheduling appointments in Grand Junction and Colorado Springs in an attempt to find a free slot.
DMV officials told reporters Monday that temporary status residents, who will also be able to obtain a license under the new law, will now be able to use any of the state’s licensing offices. Officials hope the change frees up more slots.
In order to obtain a license, an applicant must sign an affidavit saying they are currently a Colorado resident, provide proof of a Colorado tax return filing for the preceding year, and present evidence of residency in Colorado.
If unable to meet those requirements, an applicant can sign an affidavit that they’ve been a Colorado resident for the last 24 months and show proof of residency during that time.
They must also provide a taxpayer identification number, show a valid passport, military or consular identification card, and then finally sign an affidavit saying that they have applied — or will apply — for lawful presence in the U.S.
The applicant’s documents must in be English or else they must incur the cost of translation, which can only be completed by a translator registered in Colorado.
The department is worried that those seeking licenses might be scheduling appointments prematurely and without the proper forms — some of which, like a tax identification number, can take months to obtain. The DMV and activist groups have been holding regular, highly attended gatherings to provide information about how to obtain the cards, including one held Saturday in Denver that was standing-room-only.
Experts say a fix isn’t currently possible and would have to be considered next year.
“If we identify that this needs to open up to more offices, we have to go to the legislature and request more resources,” Brohl said.
More funds needed
Licenses for All, a group that advocated for the new law, says it receives about 500 calls each day from people trying to get more information on the program, according to Nacho Ramirez, a group organizer.
Ramirez says Licenses for All is requesting a meeting with the governor to request funds for the program.
Meanwhile, groups that serve immigrant populations say they feel left in the dark and that those people they serve are confused by the program.
“Since we are the only immigrant resource center in the Four Corners area, we’ve had a lot — a lot — of inquiries,” said Nicole Mosher, executive director of Compañeros, which serves the Durango area.
Mosher called the limited number of DMV locations “shocking” and “disappointing,” adding that the program essentially encourages people here illegally to break the law in order to obey the law by asking them to drive hundreds of miles without a license or insurance to reach a DMV.
“I think it denies an equal opportunity to those folks,” she said. “To me, it seems like it is going to create more problems.”
Bill “not ideal”
The bill was first introduced in the legislature last year by state Sen. Jessie Ulibarri, D-Brighton.
“It’s not ideal, but I think it’s historic,” Ulibarri said of the law, adding that he has fielded concerns about the limited number of offices and questions about who exactly is eligible for the licenses.
“If there is a need for other offices, we need to hear that feedback and we need to understand what that demand might be,” he said.
Ulibarri said the legislation’s self-funding mandate stems from Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights laws passed in the early 1990s.
Eleven states have passed similar legislation creating pathways for people here illegally to obtain licenses, some of which also have self-sustaining clauses, according to Jonathan Blazer of the American Civil Liberties Union.
“The message needs to get through that this is not the way to launch a program as important as this is for the people who have been waiting for these licenses and as important for highway safety and law enforcement,” he said.
Blazer called Colorado’s documentation requirements “excessive” and the long waits “unusual.”
While he says there have been “rocky starts elsewhere,” he said Colorado’s rollout appears to be particularly problematic. Blazer said that if the state was serious about getting the bill to work, it would call an emergency legislative session.
“If there is a will to figure this out, there should be a way,” he said.
Jesse Paul: 303-954-1733, jpaul@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jesseapaul
