On Wednesday, Federal authorities rejected the design proposed by California for driver's licenses which will be given to undocumented immigrants in the U.S., under the argument that they were not sufficiently distinguishable from the normal ones, which could lead to security problems.
According to Los Angeles Times, Washington officials want the licenses to clearly establish on the front that they are "not acceptable for official federal purposes", and that they should also have a design or color that could easily distinguish them from common licenses.
In these proposals, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has alerted many undocumented immigrants in California who think this is just another way for authorities to distinguish undocumented immigrants, which might make arrests and deportations easier.
The original proposal from the Department of Motor Vehicles of California already establishes a small mark, only less noticeable. As established by Law AB60, the DMW wants to offer licenses to change the letter L next to the number for a P, for privilege. While on the back, there would be a caption which would explain it does not serve for federal identification purposes.
Despite the reject from the DHS, California authorities have confirmed that the DMV will continue the process to provide these license starting on January, 2015 and that they're even preparing for an anticipated release of the requests.
"We're still working on hiring an additional 1,000 people and the opening four temporary offices. We hope to meet with the set deadline," explained a DMV spokesman, Armando Botello, to Reuters.
On his part, Luis Alejo, democrat representative from Watsonville said that "Our commitment is that this won't make up back down," according to the informative agency.
The same source detailed that pro immigrant groups have raised their voices and complained about the marks proposed by federal authorities, since they consider it could be an invitation for discrimination.