{"id":96087,"date":"2019-01-18T15:22:35","date_gmt":"2019-01-18T22:22:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/polis-wants-to-expand-immigrant-drivers-license-program-to-durango\/"},"modified":"2019-01-18T15:22:35","modified_gmt":"2019-01-18T22:22:35","slug":"polis-wants-to-expand-immigrant-drivers-license-program-to-durango","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/polis-wants-to-expand-immigrant-drivers-license-program-to-durango\/","title":{"rendered":"Polis wants to expand immigrant driver\u2019s license program to Durango"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Gov.
Gov. Jared Polis is proposing expanding the state\u2019s program to issue driver\u2019s licenses to undocumented immigrants to include the driver\u2019s license office in Durango. Currently, only four offices in the state issue licenses to undocumented immigrants, including this one in Denver.<\/span>Associated Press file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Gov. Jared Polis has requested that lawmakers set aside more than $480,000 that would allow Durango driver\u2019s license officials to offer licenses to undocumented immigrants, an expansion of a statewide program burdened by a months- or years-long wait list.<\/p>\n

The program, launched in 2014 and expanded last year, allows undocumented immigrants who live and pay taxes in Colorado to obtain driver\u2019s licenses, part of an effort to reduce the number of uninsured drivers on Colorado\u2019s roads. Immigrants can currently obtain licenses by appointment through offices in Lakewood, Grand Junction, Colorado Springs and Aurora. Polis\u2019 request would add a fifth office in Durango.<\/p>\n

Polis\u2019 budget request, if backed by legislation, would fund a Durango-based program through 2021 and add 23 daily appointments. Currently, the state\u2019s four driver\u2019s license offices that can issue licenses to undocumented immigrants can process 130 licenses per day. But Sen. Don Coram, R-Montrose, hopes to expand the governor\u2019s request by adding five to six more offices in rural Colorado.<\/p>\n

Since 2014 demand for appointments has surged, generating a black market where appointments have been sold for $500 to $1,000, according to the office of former Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, who launched an investigation in 2016. Currently, the wait list for an appointment can be three months or two years, according to an analysis by the Polis administration.<\/p>\n

Polis and Coram want to save the program before it hits a cap of 66,000 licenses by the end of June, triggering a reduction of the four offices to one in Denver.<\/p>\n

Coram said he plans to sponsor legislation to keep the program running.<\/p>\n

rhandy@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

would be fifth in state<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[94,21,819,934],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-96087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-colorado-state-government","tag-cortez","tag-gov-jared-polis","tag-state-sen-don-coram"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96087"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=96087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}