Utah issues fewer driving privilege cards<\/strong> The number of driving privilege cards issued to illegal immigrants in Utah dived to a four-y ear low as state data revealed Friday only 36,921 were issued or Utah issues fewer driving privilege cards Undocumentedimmigrants \u2022Recession,alternative licenses citedas reasons fordip. BY DAVID MONTERO THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE PUBLISHED: JANUARY 25, 2013 The number of driving privilege cards issued to illegal immigrants in Utah dived to a four-y ear low as state data revealed Friday only 36,921 were issued or renewed in 2012 \u2014 off from 43,000 in the peak y ear of 2008. Chris Caras, driver service bureau chief with the Utah Department … Continue reading
\nUndocumentedimmigrants \u2022Recession,alternative licenses citedas reasons fordip.
\nBY DAVID MONTERO
\nTHE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
\nPUBLISHED: JANUARY 25, 2013<\/p>\n
\nrenewed in 2012 \u2014 off from 43,000 in the peak y ear of 2008.
\nChris Caras, driver service bureau chief with the Utah Department of Public Safety , said the agency doesn\u2019t track reasons for the decline \u2014 but that doesn\u2019t mean
\nthere aren\u2019t theories linked to the numbers.
\nMichael Clara, a Salt Lake City School Board member who works closely with the undocumented immigrant community , said the tough economy sent people
\npacking \u2014 often to their country of origin.
\nHe said he knows of several people who had driving privilege cards and left recently to go back to work in Mexico.
\n\u201cThere was no work here and the people I know that were here for economic reasons left, and they \u2019re now getting jobs in Mexico,\u201d Clara said. \u201cThey \u2019re bilingual
\nand the skills they got here allow them to work in hotels and other jobs in Mexico. It served them well.\u201d
\nStatistics on the undocumented immigrant population in Utah are difficult to come by \u2014 with the most recent Pew Hispanic Center study showing a decline in the
\npopulation in Arizona, Nevada and Utah. The trio of states saw the illegal immigration population go from 830,000 in 2008 to 7 00,000 in 2009. There was also
\nan overall drop in the illegal immigration population nationally \u2014 sliding from 12 million to 1 1 million.
\nWith the bulk of the illegal immigration population from Mexico, Pew also showed between 2005 and 2010 about 1 .4 million Mexicans immigrated to the United
\nStates. But, about 1 .4 million Mexican immigrants and their U.S.-born children moved out of the United States to Mexico.
\nPam Perlich, a senior economist with the University of Utah, said the economic recession was a broad tide that impacted illegal immigration. She said immigration
\nwas usually linked to existing ties in a region \u2014 family generally . Perlich said some of the illegal immigrants came from South America just as the recession hit in
\nlate 2007 and didn\u2019t have the existing ties of family when arriving in Utah.
\nOnce the job market shriveled up, there wasn\u2019t much incentive for them to stay in Utah, either.
\n\u201cThe late arrivals didn\u2019t have these long-term roots in Utah communities and so they were the least secure,\u201d Perlich said. \u201cThe longer the recession dragged on,
\nthe more vulnerable those folks were to not being able to make it here and going back instead.\u201d
\nThe driving privilege card was signed into law in 2005 by Gov. Jon Huntsman as a way for illegal immigrants in the state to obtain insurance and legally drive in
\nUtah. It was often criticized, however, for being a clear identifier of those who were in the country illegally , and it also didn\u2019t serve as legal identification.
\nIn its initial y ear, there were about 25,000 issued and almost 34,000 in the second y ear.
\nThey cost $25 to obtain and must be renewed each y ear \u2014 as opposed to a regular driver license, which is good for five y ears.
\nCaras said in addition to the decline in driving privilege cards being issued, the agency has seen an uptick in the number of limited-term licenses being dispensed
\nby the state.
\nHe said those started being issued in 2010, and in the past two y ears, the number of limited-term licenses shot up from 4,324 to 8,512 in 2012.
\nHe said those are only issued to those who have a limited time-frame to legally work in the United States \u2014 including visa holders and those now eligible under
\nPresident Barack Obama\u2019s deferred action directive that grants a limited group of undocumented immigrants a two-y ear work permit.
\nDeferred action went into effect last August, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data showed between its start date and Dec. 14, 355,889 were
\napproved nationally . USCIS only issues data for the top 10 states with applicants, and Utah isn\u2019t in that group.
\nHowever, Colorado ranked 10th and received 7 ,124 applications. Approvals weren\u2019t listed in the chart.
\nRoger Tsai, a Salt Lake City immigration lawy er, said Utah\u2019s number of applicants would be \u201cmaybe half of Colorado\u2019s intake.\u201d
\nHe said it was unclear as to whether those applicants in Utah would account for the spike in applications for limited term licences.
\ndmontero@stlrib.com
\nTwitter; @davemontero<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"