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Santa Fe, NM, United States (AHN) – New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez plans to push for the approval of a bill denying driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, an effort Democrats will have to oppose quickly during the legislature’s 30-day session.

Giving her state of the state speech before lawmakers on Tuesday, Martinez declared that she would once more seek to repeal a 2003 law that allows license to be issued to undocumented foreign nationals.

“If we’re going to tell New Mexicans we’re serious about securing the border, we must stop giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants,” the Republican said as she convened the year’s regular session.

State Rep. Andy Nunez introduced a bill early last year requiring foreign nationals to provide a Social Security number in license applications, making it more difficult to obtain the ID from the Motor Vehicle Division. Under current law, immigrants can substitute their individual taxpayer identification number instead of a Social Security number.

Nunez, a retired educator who left the Democratic party last year to become an independent, plans to introduce the same bill he previously filed by the end of the week. “It’s identical to what I introduced last year,” he told the Alamogordo Daily News.

The state legislature meets for 30 days during even-numbered years. Both the House and the Senate are controlled by Democrats.

The bill Nunez introduced last year failed at the House committee level but was passed by the full chamber, 42-28, after an unusual move to put the measure to a floor vote. In the Senate, the measure passed by a 25-16 vote but with attached amendments removing provisions requiring a Social Security number from foreign applicants.

New Mexico is one of only three states that issue driver’s license to illegal immigrants, the others being Washington and Utah. Martinez, who is in her first term, has said this has threatened security in her state.

“Our state has become a destination spot for people from other states and around the world who wish to receive an official government-issued ID card,” she said last summer.

Following the failure of Nunez’s bill in the legislature, the governor had introduced a program requiring foreign nationals with state driver’s licenses to personally verify their residency in New Mexico. Announcing her program, she called the old law allowing undocumented immigrants to have licenses “irresponsible.”

More than 85,000 foreign nationals without a Social Security number have been issued New Mexico driver’s licenses since the law was passed, according to Martinez. Crime rings have been caught abusing the license application system, including a Chinese organization dismantled in August after obtaining state licenses for 62 illegal immigrants for $1,500 each.

National Council of La Raza, the nation’s largest advocacy group for Hispanics, has said restricting illegal immigrants from being issued licenses would result in more unlicensed drivers since undocumented foreign nationals would still have to drive to work despite not having a license.

According to the group, such legislation would also deny licenses to foreign nationals given temporary protected status and other individuals who are authorized to live in the United States but do not have a Social Security number.

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