Kentucky Bishops Call for Investigation of Civil Rights Violations by the
Kentucky Department of Transportation
Frankfort, KY – (May 30, 2002) Following the passage of House Bill 188 by
the Kentucky General Assembly, Kentucky’s Roman Catholic bishops have filed a
request for an investigation of Kentucky’s Transportation Cabinet by the federal
Department of Transportation Office of Civil Rights in Washington, D.C. The
Catholic Conference of Kentucky is alleging that the Kentucky Transportation
Cabinet is acting in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in
its treatment of lawfully present non-citizens.
CCK is charging that the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is violating the
civil rights of lawfully present immigrants. According to Reverend Pat
Delahanty, a policy analyst at CCK, "The Department is discriminating against
lawfully present immigrants by requiring them to obtain driver licenses in a
significantly different manner than citizens." This discrimination currently
occurs because of temporary policies put into effect by the Cabinet last winter.
When House Bill 188 becomes effective on July 15, 2002, this pattern of
discrimination and its disparate impact on legally present non-citizens will
continue.
Instead of applying for a license in their home county, non-citizens must
visit one of the 12 Transportation Cabinet field offices and present their
Immigration and Naturalization Services paperwork to a hearing officer. The
officer has up to 30 days to evaluate the authenticity of these documents. If
authentic, the officer will issue a document to the applicant who must then
visit the circuit court clerk’s office in the home county for issuance of a
driver license.
The new law also links the driver license expiration date to the date on the
INS documentation. Some immigrants who have a one-year work permit will only be
granted a driver license for one-year, at the same fee as others taxpayers pay
for a four-year license. "This is clearly discriminatory," said Delahanty. "Why
should any Kentucky taxpayer pay four times the amount that others do? They’ve
helped pave the same roads as other drivers and shouldn’t be treated
differently."
In its letter to Dr. Jeremy Wu, Director of the D.C. office of federal
Department of Transportation Office of Civil Rights, CCK claims that the Cabinet
is at odds with its own definition of discrimination found in its 2000 Title VI
Compliance Report to Kentucky’s State Auditor. The Cabinet provides this
definition in its glossary: "To make any distinction between one person or
group of persons and others either intentionally, by neglect, or by the effect
of actions or lack of actions based on race, color, or national origin."
Current policies as well as House Bill 188 run completely counter to this
definition.
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