KANSAS CITY, KAN. ? Each day Cesar Negrete drives to work, it’s with a nagging fear that comes from not having a driver’s license. Negrete doesn’t have one because he’s an illegal alien.

But that doesn’t stop him from going to his maintenance and landscaping jobs. For him, it’s more about feeding his wife and two children than following the letter of the law.

“Even though I don’t have papers to work here, I’m taking a job that is needed. If I’m paying taxes and I need to drive to work, they need to give me the opportunity to do it legally,” said Negrete, who came from Mexico three years ago.

His situation is similar to other illegal immigrants, but there’s little he can do about it. Negrete can’t get a driver’s license because he’s here illegally.

In 2000, Kansas legislators required those getting a driver’s license to have a “lawful presence” in the United States — joining the majority of states with such a ban. A House-passed bill abolishing that ban is stalled in a Senate committee with little chance of passage.

“It’s a necessity here. We have to use cars. I travel 45 minutes to an hour to work, and the jobs are in different places, so I have to drive,” said Hugo Batres, who came from Mexico a year ago. “There is no one to take me to work and if I don’t work, my family doesn’t eat.”

Afraid of police

The fear of being stopped by the police is very real.

“It makes me tremble. We fear that if we get stopped, it could mean deportation,” said Juan Simental, who also came from Mexico a year ago. “Our friends make fun of us for driving slow like the elderly.”

Hugo Batres, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, listens to reporters' questions during an interview at El Centro in Kansas City, Kan. Batres came to Kansas City to work a year ago, and he drives to work despite not being able to legally get a driver's license. The Kansas Legislature is considering a bill to allow illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses but likelihood of passage is considered slim.

Negrete recalled driving home once when he saw a police car.

“I just parked my car on the street because I was afraid and left the car there and ran home,” he said.

As for traffic accidents, illegal immigrants face a double whammy — no license plus no valid car insurance because they can’t get a license. Negrete said he had been in two minor accidents, neither his fault.

“I told the person to leave because it is easier to pay for the damage than to deal with driving without a license,” said Negrete, who like the other illegal immigrants spoke through a translator.

Better life worth risk

Illegal immigrants come to the United States for a better life and better wages. Batres said a good wage in Mexico was $50 a week versus $50 to $70 a day he can earn working in the Kansas City area.

“My wife was pregnant and hungry and there was no money,” said Batres, whose wife and two children live in Mexico. He says they will join him here when he saves enough money.

Nobody really knows how many illegal immigrants drive in Kansas without a license. Melinda Lewis of El Centro, a social services provider for Hispanic immigrants in the Kansas City metropolitan area, estimated there could be as many as 8,000 in the metro area.

Attorney David Grummon, who caters to the Hispanic community, says hardly a day goes by without an illegal immigrant asking for help with a ticket for driving without a license or insurance, usually after being stopped for something such as running a stop sign.

“It’s a huge problem. About four out of five traffic cases that come through my door involves no license and no insurance,” Grummon said. “Generally they have to pay the ticket. They have to suck it up and pay it.”

Not ‘criminals’

Immigration officials estimate 8.5 million illegal immigrants are in United States, of which 45 percent are Mexican; 47,000 illegal immigrants are in Kansas, they say.

In the Hispanic community, the presence of illegal immigrants is common, and many spend years trying to gain legal status. Families often are a mix of U.S. citizens, immigrants legally in the country and those who aren’t.

“Being here illegally doesn’t mean we’re criminals,” Negrete said, adding that being an illegal immigrant is a civil violation and not a criminal offense.

Not everyone agrees.

“They have broken the law to get here. How many more laws will they have to break before the elected officials will acknowledge them for what they are, which are lawless, disrespectful aliens?” said Susan Tully, Midwest field director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform in Washington.

“It’s a blurring of the lines. It’s about easy access for those who aren’t here legally to hide among the sea of citizens,” she added.

At least 11 states this year are considering bills to tighten requirements on issuing driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants and another eight are thinking about looser requirements, according the National Conference of State Legislature.

Misguided notion?

Tyler Moran of the National Immigration Law Center said 26 states, including Kansas, had laws limiting driver’s licenses to those with a “lawful presence” in the country and 14 have the same limitation either in agency rules or because of the documents required to get a license.

“Sometimes I think it’s a misguided notion that restricting licenses will make the states more secure,” Moran said.

There are mixed feelings among Kansas law enforcement officials.

“Allowing illegal aliens to get a driver’s license kind of legitimizes their presence in the country,” said Kansas Sheriff’s Assn. executive director Darrell Wilson.

But for Olathe Police Chief Janet Thiessen, a driver’s license for illegal immigrants would make her officers’ jobs easier..

“Right now, we get nothing. We are dealing with a person without a green card and no means of identification other than what they are choosing to say at the time,” Thiessen said.