State House votes to end driver certificates

The measure carried by Rep. Mike Turner, D-Old Hickory, would create temporary driver’s licenses for legal residents for the duration of their visas.

The House passed the bill on an 86-8 vote. House Transportation Chairman Phillip Pinion was unsuccessful in an attempt to expand the measure to allow for more immigrants to be licensed.

The Union City Democrat argued that more licensed drivers would make Tennessee’s roads safer.

The state in 2004 began issuing the certificates for non-U.S. residents that bore a notice that they could not be used for identification purposes. The certificates were available to anyone who could prove they were a state resident.

Turner was carrying the bill proposed by Gov. Phil Bredesen, and several Republicans had signed on as sponsors of the measure.

“I’ve been up here seven years, and this may be the first truly bipartisan bill I’ve ever had,” Turner said.

Federal investigators last year found that some testing centers were selling licenses and certificates to out-of-state illegal immigrants. Tennessee suspended the program briefly, followed by new regulations that only allow certificates for people in the country legally.

In other action, the House on Thursday also passed a proposal to let the Tennessee Highway Patrol to enforce immigration laws.

A House subcommittee previously voted to kill the measure sponsored by Rep. Delores Gresham, R-Somerville.

But lawmakers reconsidered their action to bring the bill back.

The bill authorizes the commissioner of the state Department of Safety to negotiate an agreement with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to allow troopers to be trained to enforce federal immigration and customs laws while conducting their normal duties.

The Senate passed the companion bill earlier this session.

Several House Democrats had earlier expressed concern that the measure could lead state troopers to engage in racial profiling, but the measure passed on a 95-1 vote on Thursday. House Judiciary Chairman Rob Briley, D-Nashville, was the only member to vote against the measure.

The bill now heads for Gov. Phil Bredesen’s signature. Bredesen has not said whether he will sign the bill into law.