KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) May 7, 2004 - Around the country, millions of undocumented immigrants are driving without licenses, because most states require legal residency to get one. And in many places, there is little hope of changing the law, in part because the usual arguments over immigration and highway safety have become entangled since Sept. 11 in questions of homeland security.

"Once the terrorist attacks occurred, the focus tended to shift to how people get a driver's license and what kind of security is needed -- that this form of identification isn't just for driving, but for boarding planes,'' said Melissa Savage, a policy analyst with the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Some 40 states, including Kansas, have laws or regulations limiting restricting driver's licenses to those with a "lawful presence'' in the country, according to the National Immigration Law Center.

This year, legislatures in at least 17 states are considering what to do about undocumented immigrants and driver's licenses, the NCSL said. Nine have bills to tighten restrictions, four to loosen them and four to both tighten and loosen.

Before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, more states were considering ways to allow undocumented immigrants to drive, viewing it as a traffic safety issue, Savage said.

Cesar Negrete saw a police car while driving home one day and lost his nerve. "I just parked my car on the street because I was afraid and left the car there and ran home,'' he said.

Negrete, an undocumented immigrant, has no driver's license. But he has a wife and two children to feed, and maintenance and landscaping jobs to get to, so he drives anyway, though he does so with fear.

"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.

Many have long argued that undocumented immigrants are going to drive anyway, and making them learn the rules of the road and buy insurance will make the highways safer. Opponents have contended that letting them get licenses would only reward them for entering this country undocumentedly.

Since Sept. 11, the opponents have had another, powerful argument: Driver's licenses might fall into terrorists' hands.

Last year, a California law allowing undocumented immigrants to get licenses contributed to Gov. Gray Davis' ouster. In December, his successor, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, repealed the law after opponents claimed, among other things, that it was a threat to national security.

In April, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush backed a bill to allow undocumented immigrants to drive, saying they are in the state and officials should accept it. The bill would require applicants to get fingerprinted, and their consulates would have to provide criminal background checks.

But the bill was later abandoned by its sponsor after law enforcement officials raised security concerns.

Elsewhere, Illinois lawmakers this spring overwhelmingly rejected letting undocumented immigrants obtain driver's licenses. In Arizona, the state Senate passed a bill to toughen the requirement that license applicants provide proof they are in this country legally. The measure awaits House action.

Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen supports a plan to prohibit undocumented immigrants from getting licenses but allow them to obtain "certificates for driving,'' which could not be used for identification purposes.

In Kansas, a House-passed bill to let undocumented immigrants drive is all but dead in the Senate. Most opposition came from those who argued that lawbreakers do not deserve driver's licenses.

"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.

In 2002, there were an estimated 9.3 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, 5.3 million of them from Mexico, according to the NCSL. Exactly how many of them are driving undocumentedly is unclear, but the number is put in the millions.

"It makes me tremble. We fear that if we get stopped, it could mean deportation,'' said Juan Simental, who lives in Kansas City and came from Mexico a year ago. "Our friends make fun of us for driving slow like the elderly.''

Negrete, who also lives in Kansas City, said through an interpreter that he has 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,'' he said.