Hearing on HB 2015 is scheduled for Wednesday, April 17, at 5 pm.

Alert date: 
Thursday, April 11, 2019
Alert body: 

A hearing has now been announced on HB 2015, the so-called Equal Access to the Roads Act of 2019, which overturns the successful Referendum of 2014 that nullified an earlier attempt to give driver licenses to illegal aliens.

The Hearing, by the Joint Transportation Committee, is scheduled for Wednesday, April 17, at 5 pm, in Hearing Room F at the State Capitol.   If you can attend and speak to the Committee in opposition, please do.

Please contact your state legislators also, and voice your opposition. 

We have good evidence that the public does NOT support the continuing effort to erase the requirement for citizenship or legal status to obtain an official i.d. or driver license. 

A new statewide poll of likely voters finds that Oregonians still overwhelmingly oppose granting driver’s licenses to illegal aliens.  OFIR members and other citizens can cite the poll when contacting their legislators in opposition to HB 2015.

According to this poll, commissioned by the Federation for American Immigration Reform and conducted by Zogby Analytics on March 18 and 19, voters continue to oppose granting driver’s licenses to illegal aliens by a 63 percent to 30 percent margin. Voters even more emphatically reject a new effort by the Legislature and Gov. Kate Brown to override the will of the people who defeated Measure 88 in 2014. That ballot measure struck down a similar law enacted by the Legislature in 2013.

Today, 68.4 percent of voters believe that the Legislature “must respect the decisions made by the voters through the ballot initiative process,” compared with just 18.7 percent who think the Legislature has the right to enact laws “that have been previously overturned by the voters.”

OFIR President Cynthia Kendoll’s comment: “The people have spoken. The Legislature and the governor do not like what they had to say, so they are demonstrating their contempt for the people of Oregon with a blatant attempt to overrule the outcome of democratic election. This sort of arrogance of power is the hallmark of authoritarian dictatorships, not the progressivism that Oregon likes to project to the world.”

Adding to the arrogance of state leaders promoting HB 2015 is that the Equal Access to the Roads Act bill is being proclaimed to be so urgent that an “emergency” clause has been attached, which would prevent opponents of the bill from blocking its implementation through another citizen's veto referendum. “Frankly, the voters shouldn’t have to say no again. They already have – very loudly, very clearly, and not very long ago. Members of the Legislature don’t have to like it. Gov. Brown doesn’t have to like it. But they should respect the decision of the voters,” said Kendoll.

The poll data should serve as a warning to elected officials in the state. A 63.5 percent majority of Oregon voters indicated that they would be less likely to vote for legislators who defy the will of the people on this issue, including 46.5 percent who said they would be “much less likely” to vote for such public officials. Only 11.8 percent said such action would make them more likely to vote for such legislators.

The full results of the statewide poll of Oregon voters can be found at:  https://fairus.org/sites/default/files/2019-03/Oregon%20Driver%27s%20License%202019.toplines.pdf

If you need additional ideas for opposition statements, please view the Protect Oregon Driver Licenses website.  This page may be especially helpful:  https://www.protectoregondl.org/info/consequences/sb833-bad-for-oregon