MALDEF sues NM Tax & Rev Dept over immigrant driver's licenses

August 23, 2011

10:55 PM

Today at 2pm, the Mexican American Legal Defense & Education Fund announces its decision to sue the state over its new, "unconstitutional" residency verification requirements for immigrants with driver's licenses.

State Reps. Miguel Garcia, D-Bernalillo, and Eliseo Alcon, D-Cibola, have signed onto the case, which will be filed in state district court.

Their argument: that singling out immigrants and foreign nationals and requiring them to re-verify their residency status amounts to unconstitutional discrimination. SFR reported on this idea last month.

Lead attorney David Urias of Freedman Boyd Hollander Goldberg Ives & Duncan could not be reached for comment Tuesday evening.

SANTA FE, NM -- On Wednesday, August 24, 2011, MALDEF and co-counsel Freedman Boyd Hollander Goldberg Ives & Duncan (Freedman Boyd) will announce the filing of a lawsuit against the Secretary of the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department, on behalf of a group of New Mexico legislators and residents of New Mexico. The lawsuit will seek to stop the implementation and execution of the so-called “Residency Certification Program.” The Program, which singles out a specific class of individuals for an onerous and wasteful exercise of state resources, was never authorized, ratified, or even considered by the State Legislature, and lacks statutory authority.

This lawsuit%uFFFDformally a petition for mandamus, which may be issued by the state district court to order a public official or agency to refrain from taking unlawful or unconstitutional actions%uFFFDseeks to stop New Mexico Governor Martinez’s “Residency Certification Program” from unlawfully violating the rights of New Mexico residents and from doing an end-run around the will of the New Mexico legislature.