California on Thursday joined the growing list of states that allow immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally to obtain driver's licenses _ a measure supported not only by Latino activists but by police chiefs and insurance authorities. 
 
 Ipolito Nurez celebrates outside City Hall after California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the bill AB 60, which allows immigrants in the country illegally to obtain driver licenses. Immigrant advocates have... (Associated Press) 
 
 California Gov. Jerry Brown speaks at Los Angeles City Hall before signing the AB 60 bill in Los Angeles Thursday, Oct 3, 2013. The bill adds California to the growing list of states allowing immigrants... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this photo provided by the City of Los Angeles, California Gov. Jerry Brown signs a bill, Thursday Oct. 3, 2013 in Los Angeles, adding California to the growing list of states allowing immigrants living... (Associated Press) 
 
 From left to right, Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Salinas, state Sen. Kevin DeLeon, D-Los Angeles, Los Angeles City Councilman, Gov. Jerry Brown, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, and Assemblyman V. Manuel... (Associated Press) 
 
 Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown signed the bill in front of a cheering crowd of immigrants and their supporters, predicting other parts of the country will follow the example set by the nation's most populous state. 
 
 The licenses, which are expected to become available no later than January 2015, will carry a special designation on the front and a notice stating that the document is not official federal identification and cannot be used to prove eligibility for employment or public benefits. 
 
 "This is only the first step," Brown said outside City Hall in Los Angeles. "When a million people without their documents drive legally and with respect in the state of California, the rest of this country will have to stand up and take notice. No longer are undocumented people in the shadows." 
 
 Ten other states have enacted measures to give driver's licenses to immigrants in the country illegally, many of them in the past year, according to the National Immigration Law Center. 
 
 Some of those states issue only one kind of license. But laws in many states, including Oregon and Colorado, create distinctions between the license given to immigrants and the one issued to other drivers. 
 
 Some immigrant advocates initially raised concerns that a different license in California would contribute to racial profiling. The new law bans discrimination based on the license and states that the license cannot be used as a basis for arresting someone for being in the U.S. illegally. 
 
 State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said he believes the marker is insignificant in relation to what the license will do for immigrants. 
 
 "Those distinctions mean little to hard-working people who simply want to drive to work or drive their kids to school or soccer practice without fear," he said. 
 
 State officials estimate 1.4 million drivers will apply for licenses under the law during the first three years. The measure, written by Democratic Assemblyman Luis Alejo, will grant licenses to anyone who passes the written and road tests, regardless of immigration status. 
 
 State and local officials touted the importance of getting immigrants properly trained and tested so that they know how to drive and are familiar with the rules of the road in California. 
 
 "That's what this bill is about, making the streets of this state safer," Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said. The bill had the backing of the state's Police Chiefs Association and insurance authorities. 
 
 It isn't clear whether entities such as local government offices, libraries or banks will accept the license as identification. 
 
 Over the past two decades, immigrant advocates have pushed to get licenses in California. The effort took on more urgency in recent years as immigrants caught driving without a license began seeing their cars impounded and wound up being screened by federal immigration authorities for deportation. 
 
 Former state lawmaker and current Los Angeles City Councilman Gil Cedillo said he introduced the license bill 11 times over 15 years, but the measure failed to get enough votes or was vetoed or repealed. 
 
 Cedillo said the license will bear a marker to comply with a federal identification law enacted after the 2001 terrorist attacks but that won't impede immigrants desperate to drive legally from applying for it. 
 
 In the Legislature, opponents of the bill said granting a license with special markings would put employers and landlords in a conflict between complying with state and federal laws. 
 
 The bill is one of several immigrant-friendly measures passed by the Legislature this year, including overtime pay for domestic workers and an effort to scale back collaboration between local law enforcement and federal immigration officials. 
 
 Brown has enjoyed strong support among Latino voters, whose numbers are growing in California. On the steps of City Hall, scores of immigrant rights activists chanted "champion" in Spanish at the mention of his name. 
 
 He urged lawmakers to move forward on more sweeping immigration reform on Capitol Hill, where an overhaul has stalled. 
 
 Ismael Salvador, a 63-year-old factory worker from El Salvador, turned out to see the bill-signing. He said the change will radically alter the lives of his two daughters, who are in the country illegally. 
 
 One risks driving every morning to her job as a lunch truck cook, and the other cleans houses and relies on rides because she is afraid to get behind the wheel, he said. ||||| Gov. Jerry Brown signed a landmark law Thursday granting driver's licenses to people who are in the country illegally, hailing the measure as an important expansion of immigrant rights and one that should serve as an example to other states. 
 
 "This is only the first step. When a million people without their documents drive legally with respect to the state of California, the rest of this country will have to stand up and take notice," Brown said outside Los Angeles City Hall, with Archbishop Jose Gomez and other dignitaries in attendance. "No longer are undocumented people in the shadows." 
 
 The licenses will bear distinguishing marks: The legislation recommends DP for driving privilege, rather than DL for driver's license. 
 
 The new law will set off a scramble at the Department of Motor Vehicles, which may open up to six temporary offices to handle the estimated 1.4 million immigrants who are expected to apply in the next three years. 
 
 Proponents say that with more licensed drivers, hit-and-run accidents will decrease and the percentage of drivers who are insured will increase. 
 
 Ten other states have passed similar laws — seven of them this year — as comprehensive immigration reform remains stalled at the federal level. In the three states that already grant such licenses, the effect is being debated. 
 
 A study in New Mexico found that the rate of insured drivers has increased only slightly. Republican Gov. Susana Martinez has advocated the repeal of the driver's license provision, arguing that out-of-state immigrants are flocking there and fraudulently obtaining licenses. Washington state has also seen multiple attempts to repeal its immigrant driver's licenses. 
 
 Immigrant rights advocates predict that most people who are driving without licenses will come forward and apply. In Utah, people were initially scared, but about 75% to 80% ended up applying, said Tony Yapias of Proyecto Latino de Utah. 
 
 "For the last eight years, it has worked well in Utah," Yapias said. "I tell the immigrant community in California to give it a chance. It will make things safe for everyone." 
 
 California DMV officials will begin developing eligibility guidelines and the licenses probably won't be issued until late 2014 or early 2015. The legislation suggests using documents such as a passport, lease agreement or birth certificate to establish identity. 
 
 State officials estimate that once guidelines are in place, processing the flood of applications will cost $140 million to $220 million in the first three years. The new applicants would collectively pay about $50 million under current fee structures, but the bill allows additional fees if necessary. 
 
 California is home to nearly one in four immigrants who live in the U.S. without legal status. The state can learn a lot about potential problems from New Mexico, which has issued more than 90,000 driver's licenses to foreign nationals since 2003, said Demesia Padilla, that state's secretary for taxation and revenue. 
 
 "It's been a disaster," Padilla said. "We have had a lot of identify fraud." 
 
 The state has broken up fraud rings that used false addresses and fraudulent lease and utility documents to obtain driver's licenses for immigrants who live in other states, she said. 
 
 One of the California bill's leading opponents, businessman Don Rosenberg of Westlake Village, said he is considering a possible legal challenge to the new law, which he called a "sham." 
 
 Rosenberg, whose 25-year-old son was killed in an accident with an unlicensed immigrant driver, testified at the Capitol in recent months against the legislation, criticizing it for not requiring any training or other measures to make sure the new drivers are safer. 
 
 Police chiefs and sheriffs across California have generally backed the measure because the licenses are clearly distinguishable from standard ones. 
 
 "With this bill, over 1 million drivers in California will be more likely to have been tested, to have insurance or to know the rules of the road and obey the laws of this state," Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said Thursday. 
 
 But in New Mexico, the law enforcement benefits touted by the licenses' proponents have not materialized, said Jim Burleson, executive director of the state's Sheriffs' and Police Assn. Burleson argues that immigrants should drive in the U.S. using driver's licenses from their home countries. 
 
 "Go get the license from where you come from," he said. "There's nothing value-added having a person … get a license from that state if they're not from there." 
 
 A 2011 study published in the Journal of Insurance Regulation suggested that in states that grant driver's licenses to such immigrants, the rate of uninsured motorists had increased by almost 2%, resulting in more fatal car crashes. 
 
 In Utah, a 2006 state audit report showed that about 75% of those with the immigrant "driving privilege cards" had obtained car insurance, compared with 81% of those with regular licenses. 
 
 Los Angeles City Councilman Gil Cedillo introduced a licensing bill every year during his two decades in the California Legislature. He said Thursday that the legislation was prompted by the seizure of unlicensed immigrants' cars. 
 
 For Araceli Sanchez of West Los Angeles, a driver's license would allow her to get to her housecleaning and painting jobs without fear that her car will be impounded or that she will be deported. 
 
 "Driving without a license is a lot of fear," said Sanchez, 49, who came to the U.S. illegally from Oaxaca, Mexico, more than two decades ago. "Every day when we go to our work or take our kids to school, we feel a menace following us." 
 
 Angel Barrera said that all the immigrants in his Van Nuys apartment building are studying for the driver's license test using a Spanish-language smartphone app. 
 
 "You don't know what a difference this will make," Barrera said. "We will be able to go everywhere we want now." 
 
 cindy.chang@latimes.com 
 
 richard.winton@latimes.com 
 
 patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com
– California has joined the ranks of states that allow illegal immigrants to legally drive. "When a million people without their documents drive legally with respect to the state of California, the rest of this country will have to stand up and take notice," said Gov. Jerry Brown at yesterday's signing, reports the Los Angeles Times. Some 1.4 million immigrants are likely to apply within three years; the state may set up six temporary issuing offices. The law suggests calling the documents "driving privileges" rather than "driver's licenses," but discrimination over the distinction is banned, the AP notes. The bill was backed by police because drivers "will be more likely to have been tested, to have insurance, or to know the rules of the road," says LAPD chief Charlie Beck. But a note of caution comes from New Mexico, one of 10 states that already issues such licenses. "It's been a disaster," says the state's secretary for taxation and revenue. "We have had a lot of identity fraud."