Sounds good. No reason to help those who shouldn’t be here. On the other hand, this ensures they will be driving without licenses AND insurance. Catch-22.
Tighter license rules hit illegal immigrants
Even where it’s legal, it’s getting tougher for illegal immigrants to get driver’s licenses.
The handful of states that issue licenses to illegal immigrants are stepping up efforts to combat fraud and identity theft. That means stricter rules for ensuring immigrants live in-state and are who they say they are.
In the last year, North Carolina and Tennessee stopped issuing licenses to illegal immigrants altogether. Meanwhile, New Mexico’s motor vehicle agency enlisted the Mexican government to help the state check the identity of would-be drivers. Maine is working to start limiting licenses to in-state residents, after decades of resisting.
Only seven states – Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington – allow undocumented immigrants to get driver’s licenses.
Good – now lets restrict medical care.
Illegal immigrants are going to drive, license or not. So isn’t it better if they take a test and prove they can drive?
You’re not going to hear that rationale from the right wing xenophobes who dominate the media these days. I’m not sure I agree but it’s a reasonable argument.
>> Good – now lets restrict medical care.
Yeah! Just what American needs…. unchecked TB and Hep A among those who pick our crops and serve us our food.
they never should have been issued licenses to begin with. What part of “illegally entering the country” do people not understand? They should’ve been arrested and deported as soon as they showed up at the DMV to get a license. When will the insanity in this country end?
Really lighlights this issue: Are laws what is written in books, OR, is law how what is written in books is actually enforced?
When the most powerful nation on earth is schizophrenic on such a basic issue as who is allowed within our borders, its not surprising to have disorder as we have been experiencing.
There is alot of benefits from being honest with oneself and making laws that are enforced accordingly==whether one is a person, or a country.
#3 – Right everyone is a hep-b carrier. Give me a break.
Fine – diagnose them, then stick ’em in a plastic bubble and send ’em back.
This doesn’t matter, they will still drive and without insurance. I was in traffic court recently and through an interpreter, one individual actually stated that he didn’t know he needed a drivers license and that in his country of origin they didn’t require one. WTF…
Driving without a license is just one of many more reasons why car insurance should be a gas tax and collected “at the pump.” But this would interfere with private insurance companies raking off the cream, so we all get to suffer in the name of free market capitalism.
Thanks boys.
Having insurance paid through a gas tax might be a reasonable solution but it still does not solve the fundamental issue of rewarding someone for circumventing the system. If we are happily going to issue licenses to illegal immigrants then why have a border restrictions at all? Maintaining the border is expensive and apparently pointless if we are simply going to reward people that manage to get around it.
Purchase guns?
ANYBODY can buy a gun on a private sale basis in states that don’t prohibit it.
NOBODY can buy a gun from a dealer without passing the “Brady” check. You have to be a citizen to pass that one…. (Yeah – I know – there are a couple of minor exceptions.)
Can we leave the criminal and terrorist friendly anti-gun dreq out of this otherwise serious discussion?
My son had an accident a couple days ago caused when an unlicensed Mexican woman inexplicably stopped on the interstate in heavy traffic. He (my son) and his wife got stopped without hitting her, and then they got creamed by two cars following them a little too closely. All the senorita had in the way of ID was a Mexican consular ID, and she didn’t (or wouldn’t) speak English. Makes you wonder. Amnesty, my butt!
“Illegal immigrants are going to drive, license or not. So isn’t it better if they take a test and prove they can drive?”
Greg, this makes no sense because by your own admission, they’ll drive anyway. If they don’t prove they can drive and fail to get a licence, they’ll *still* drive.
The biggest problem is that once they get a license, it gives them a defacto form of ID. The problem is, most use illegals use bullshit info, so now you have a recognized, legitimate bullshit ID issued by the state.
“Illegal immigrants are going to drive, license or not. So isn’t it better if they take a test and prove they can drive?”
Disagree here. They got stopped with a license, no problem. They get stopped without a license, they could go to jail. If I were an illegal immigrant, I wouldn’t take the chance, and stay away from driving (and any other activities which get me near the ‘system’.).
This country really has to acknowledge that low paid, low skilled immigrants are an important part of our economy and possibly our future, and we have to do something to normalize it. But whatever we do (amnesty), we have to make sure that once normalized, NO ILLEGAL entry will be tolerated. None. Nada.
Well, here in California, which we stole from the Mexicans fair and square, who exactly is the illegal alien?
For that matter, my Cherokee blood wishes that the white man would get the hell out of Georgia….
on a more practical note:
The biggest problem here is that a driver’s license has become the defacto government issued ID for most people. Funny that a ham radio license or contractor’s license is not used, isn’t it! So, here we have that great paragon of efficiency and accuracy, the DMV (!) issuing the vast majority of official identification.**
The basis for permitting driving an automobile on pubic streets should be 1. demonstrated ability, 2. familiarity with traffic laws and 3. financial responsibility. Not immigration status. Granted, many illegals wouldn’t pass part 3, but the same goes for an awful lot of citizens. Until we get around to insuring drivers for liability instead of cars, there won’t be much progress on that front.
Get the DMV out of the ID business.
Get the Department of State or some other more appropriate agency into the ID business.
Then, decide what to do about the so called illegal aliens.
**The fattest woman I ever saw in my entire life was a DMV employee. It was a sight I will never forget to see her arms in motion when using rubber stamps on documents. eeech!
#15 – For that matter, my Cherokee blood wishes that the white man would get the hell out of Georgia….
If we all left Georgia … nevermind 🙂 Why did I even leave Mexifornia?
#14 – But whatever we do (amnesty), we have to make sure that once normalized, NO ILLEGAL entry will be tolerated. None. Nada.
Wasn’t that supposed to be what happened in 1986? And here we are with 12 to 20 million more (depending on whose estimates you believe) illegal immigrants in the last 20 years. Government has proved its ineptitude and I don’t believe that will change.
#15
> Well, here in California, which we stole
> from the Mexicans fair and square, who
> exactly is the illegal alien?
What a sophist argument. By that logic, we should give Europe back to the Africans and England back to the Celts. We did not “steal” California. We used assertive diplomacy to encourage Mexico to *give* us California. (Of course, wiping out their army helped).
Regarding your basic rules for driving permission, when a person is pulled over, how does the officer know that the person is licensed? If the license has no picture, how does the officer know that the documents provided by the driver really belong to that driver? How does the drive prove they are the person on the documents? When the person applies to get a license, how do we know they are who they say they are?
What you clearly do not see is that the various DMVs have a serious need to establish the identity of driving applicants. Since, as yet, we cannot mandate that people have passports and since the State’s have need to provide a means for its constituents to prove their identity, it is generally logical for the State’s to let the DMV manage that process. If however, there were a reliable form of identification, issued by a trusted source that everyone were required to have, then certainly the DMVs would be happy to relinquish this task. Of course, it would also mean that you would have to have *BOTH* documents on your person when you drive: your license and your identification.
…this ensures they will be driving without licenses AND insurance. Catch-22.
Classic liberal spin: no license, no insurance… therefore we need to water down our laws to help the lawbreakers!.
love the pic
LOL
A low-level appointee of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was forced to resign after the Democratic leader of the State of California Senate accused him of posting a picture on his blog that amounted to “hate speech. The picture he posted was the same fake “Mexifornia” driver’s license picture used at the top of this blog entry.
http://tinyurl.com/22ts5c
“Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this county is closely related with this.”
Albert Einstein
BELOW IS THE SOLUTION TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
Take the jobs that we are giving to Red Communist Chinese and Vietnamese and give them to the Christian, God-fearing Democratic Mexicans.
Communism falls, Mexicans stay home because they have good jobs. Frankly they don’t like America, because we have too few holidays, we are uptight, we don’t throw good parties, and our culture is alien to mexicans.
They’re only here for the money.
End Solution. No fence needed, no need to treat mexico like an enemy, their booming economy will mean better quality goods to the usa, they buy more of our weapons, and our foreign policy rewards democracies, not COMMUNISTS.
12 Rick,
I’m on the fence about this but I do see the logic of wanted as many people having driver’s licenses as possible — illegal or not.
If illegal aliens are not allowed licenses, then it denies them auto insurance, for example.
Who thinks it’s a great idea that these guy drive around without insurance?
#9
Some time ago, we had legislation in California proposition sponsoring universal car insurance paid for at the pump. I thought it was a great idea — no more freeloaders on car insurance.
As I remember it, the conservatives killed it because they hate any tax increase even if it ends up taking more money out of our pockets in insurance premiums.
#26
> If illegal aliens are not allowed
> licenses, then it denies them
> auto insurance, for example.
Why not deport them the moment they applied? It would be stupid not to ask for enough information to know or have a good idea of whether they were here illegally. Thus, why wouldn’t we just send them back on the spot? If I were here illegally, I would assume that is exactly what they would do. You can’t risk the chance otherwise.
If you are here illegally, what point is there in even getting a license? You are going to drive with or without one. If you get pulled over, even if you show a valid license, if you can’t show you are here legally, you will be deported. Perhaps they might pay the insurance premiums just long enough to get their license but after that there is no point in paying the premiums. If you get into an accident where there is a police report, the police are going to ask for proof that you are here legally and then they’ll turn it over to INS who will deport you.
IMO, giving licenses to *illegal* aliens is the height of stupidity. If driving is a privilege then why allow someone that should be deported the privilege of driving legally? Any entanglement with law enforcement will likely get them deported. If we are not going to deport them for traffic incidents, then you might as well designate them legal aliens and dismantle the border completely because it is irrelevant.
I’m amazed that people do not really understand this issue. If we are going to restrict who can come into this country in any way, then must agree that anyone that circumvents that system must be sent back or else the restriction is pointless.
Trivia- the picture is from the movie “Treasue of the Sierra Madre” with Humphrey Bogart. The line goes “Badges! We dont need no stinking badges!.