Please forward.
URGENT ALERT! 
PLEASE CALL GOVERNOR SONNY PERDUE’S OFFICE at 404-656-1776.
I apologize for the late notice, but have heard that SB 15 will be on the Governor’s desk tomorrow to either sign into law or veto.  The bill will make driving without a valid Georgia’s driver’s license a felony on the 4th offense.  If caught four times without one - the violator will be fined and/or imprisoned. To read the complete bill go to www.legis.ga.gov/2007_2008/fulltext/sb15.htm

Please call the Governor’s office and respectfully urge him to sign this bill into law.  Those lobbying for a veto of this bill by the Governor have made their phone calls.  He needs to hear from all who support the bill early Wednesday morning.  Georgia’s highways will be safer by having only those who have earned a driver’s license, passing the same test you and I are required to pass, prior to driving an automobile on our roads.

Comments in the hearing when this bill was heard in committee include:
“Rep. Roger Bruce (D-Atlanta) launched a lively debate - one that eventually centered on illegal immigrants - after questioning the logic of SB 15. Someone shouldn’t be stripped of their voting rights and put in prison for up to five years for failing to have a Georgia driver’s license, even on the third offense [the bill was later changed to make the 4th offense a felony], Bruce said. ‘Because you don’t have a license doesn’t mean you don’t know how to drive,’ Bruce told fellow members of the House Judiciary Committee.”  (AJC – 4/13/07)

On 4/17/2007, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) sent out six talking points opposing the bill.  The second point was:
“This bill will break-up mixed status families. U.S. citizen children will be penalized because their undocumented parents will very likely be deported because they were charged with a felony - driving without a valid driver’s licenses. U.S. citizen children and undocumented children (who are entitled to a public education) will have no way to reach school or doctor’s appointments, medical emergencies. Moreover, innocent children’s constitutional right to engage in interstate travel would be abridged.”  To read the rest of the talking points go to http://www.galeo.org/agenda.php?agenda_id=0000000183
(GALEO is the abbreviation for Georgia Association of Latin Elected Officials.)

Thank you for Keeping The Faith,

Sadie Fields