Bipartisan Colorado immigrant driver bill advances

DENVER — Colorado lawmakers have advanced a bill to let unauthorized immigrants renew their driver’s licenses online or by mail, overcoming objections that the licenses sanction illegal immigration.

Colorado has issued driver’s licenses to unauthorized immigrant residents since 2014.

But the licenses must be renewed every three years, and under current law that must be done in person at one of three Department of Motor Vehicles offices.

The waiting list for renewals — let alone first-time applicants — is months long, leading to illegal sales of appointments and preventing many immigrant workers from driving to their jobs and operating farm machinery.

Colorado’s Democrat-led House sent the bipartisan bill to the Republican-led Senate on Wednesday, where legislators will consider minor amendments before sending it to the governor.