Posted on 12/24/2001 8:30:43 AM PST by citizen
South Carolina's attorney general recently asked U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to require additional photo identification for airline passengers with licenses from North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Utah, states that license illegal immigrants. He said the license requirements in those states create "a large loophole for potential terrorists."
The debate over whether to grant driver's licenses to illegal immigrants has simmered for a few years, but it could heat up next month.
Proponents have 30,000 signatures, the attention of Gov. Roy Barnes and two champions in the state Legislature. Opponents plan an ad campaign and press conferences to protest possible changes during the legislative session that begins in January.
Both sides may confront questions raised by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Authorities say some of the 19 hijackers improperly obtained driver's licenses and state IDs in Florida, Virginia and New Jersey and used them to open bank accounts, rent cars and apartments and more easily blend into the mainstream.
Georgia law says only U.S. citizens and people with permission to live here can get a driver's license. That leaves out a few hundred thousand illegal immigrants, mainly Latinos. They work in poultry plants, carpet mills, construction and other businesses. They drive every day but can't buy auto insurance because they can't get licenses.
Opponents worry that illegal immigrants could use a license to access government services to which they are not entitled. They say it makes no sense to officially recognize someone whose presence violates federal law.
Rep. Barbara Mobley (D-Decatur) has filed a bill to license illegal immigrants. She said she plans to revise it, maybe to create licenses that say something like "for driving only." The goal is to ease concerns that illegal immigrants would use a license to vote.
Mobley said she expects increased opposition because of the "greater scrutiny of immigrants" after Sept. 11.
"My concern was heightened because of the tone of the country and the tone of the state," she said.
Teodoro Maus, former Mexican consul general in Atlanta, led the licensing push for years. He said Mobley's bill "would have had a better chance" were it not for attacks in New York and Washington. He predicted the bill will go nowhere without "a tremendous amount of lobbying."
Gov. Roy Barnes said Sept. 20 that Georgia should grant some form of license to illegal immigrants, but a spokeswoman declined to say whether he supports Mobley's bill. Barnes has directed the Department of Motor Vehicle Safety to study the issue, and officials there said they are examining what other states are doing.
North Carolina licenses illegal immigrants on the theory that such immigrants drive anyway and need to learn the rules of the road and have auto insurance. The state tightened requirements after Sept. 11 to require applicants to show a Social Security number or taxpayer identification number. Illegal immigrants cannot get valid Social Security numbers, but they can get taxpayer ID numbers.
Authorities in Florida, Kentucky and New Jersey tightened license requirements for foreigners after Sept. 11. And a California plan to license some illegal immigrants who have applied for legal residency was delayed by a budget crunch and concerns that potential terrorists could get licenses.
South Carolina's attorney general recently asked U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to require additional photo identification for airline passengers with licenses from North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Utah, states that license illegal immigrants. He said the license requirements in those states create "a large loophole for potential terrorists."
Phil Kent, president of the Southeastern Legal Foundation, said his public-interest law firm plans an ad campaign and press conferences next month to campaign against driver's licenses for Georgia's illegal immigrants. He said he has met with a few legislators and doubts Mobley's bill will pass.
Driver's licenses are the closest thing Americans have to a national ID card. They let people drive legally, of course, but also let people rent videos, board airplanes and cash pay checks. They can be offered, often with a fraudulent Social Security card, as evidence that someone is legally authorized to work.
"The driver's licenses are the keys to the kingdom," Kent said. "I don't want to reward lawbreaking."
Latino leaders say getting licenses for illegal immigrants is among their top priorities. A committee of community leaders has led a petition drive that has so far collected about 30,000 signatures and several letters. The Georgia Commission on Hispanic Affairs, newly created by the governor, decided at its first meeting to examine the driver's license issue.
One commission member, Rep. Mary Squires (D-Norcross), said she plans to introduce a bill that would let people drive with a valid license from a state that borders Georgia. It also would let people drive with a valid license from Canada and Mexico. Many people don't know it, but the Department of Motor Vehicles says people with a valid license from a foreign country already can drive legally for one year.
Squires plans to discuss her bill at a press conference at the state Capitol at 10 a.m. Jan. 8. Latino leaders will also present signatures and letters they have collected in support of a change. Squires said the state should acknowledge that illegal immigrants are important to the economy.
And now they want illegal Terrorist friendly IDs too!
Ah, the GOOD Carolina. Home of John Calhoun and politically superior to Nawth Carolina.
However, let's keep in mind that the Mexicans were invited in by your neighbors in the mills of Gainesville and the poultry plants of Chamblee. Don't count on Barnes or the Dems who control the Senate and legislature to be on our side here.
Now I see why this country is worried about running out of Social Security benefits in the future...
We ought to get off this "illegal alien" spiel...Why not just give them a citizenship card when they cross the border...Or better yet, send them in the mail and they can avoid the hassle at the border...What a sham on the "real" American people...
I'm not counting on our Republican friends either, so we need to beat on them with emails and letters......
What we really should do is END FAMILY REUNIFICATION. This is merely another form of social engineering and must be stopped. Allow guest workers to come in to fill labor needs, but DO NOT ALLOW THEM TO AUTOMATICALLY BRING THEIR FAMILIES!!!
Shocking isn't it....the Gub'ment gets taxes [not much] and the sleazy employers get cheap labor....You & I? We just lose our country and freedom every day.
Here in Dekalb County we [not me] voted for a one cent sales tax increase to permanently end the property portion of our county property tax (still paying school portion).
Only 4 years later now they say, SO sadly, that regretfully the property tax must be reinstated - and at drastically increased property valuations.
Dekalb schools are now choked and overcrowded with the illegals' children. Same for Gwinnett County.
Go vote, please. (only once :)
We have an interesting development here in South Florida, as we get both the rich Latin Americans fleeing Venezuela and Colombia (thereby propping up the local real estate market), along with the poorer classes who attend our substandard schools. As a result, we have rich foreigners (who send their kids to private schools) sharing the burden of the highest property taxes in the state along with the native born. Nevertheless, a bigger problem (particularly in Broward County to the north) are the old folks from New York who never saw a bond issue they didn't want to vote for.
I gotta go for a while, will check back later.....Merry Christmas to all Americans and LEGAL immigrants!
That's what is happening here on the border, many don't even bother moving to the US, they bring their kids every morning to US schools and pick them up in the evening, that way they have no property taxes to pay for schools and Americans pay everything. Of course the local tax payer is maxed out so we have to have a "robin hood" policy where the rest of Texas helps to pay and of course we have massive amounts of federal money pouring into the region. Over half the children here are born into poverty, the county hospital is bankrupt inspite of extremely high taxes on the property owners, but we get federal money for that too.
I don't know why anyone thought that illegals would come here and abandon their own elderly. Most bring them in as soon as they can so they can have a better retirement because they don't have SSI and Medicare and Medicaid to rely on back home. SSI works very well if you never worked a day in your life in the US but are now too old to work here.
Arrrggh! Is that really true?! How can the BP be so lax as to allow such a predictable daily crossing? Twice a day in fact?
Are the PB agents bribed, lazy, sympathetic or what? If it's that bad along the border we are doomed without firm presidential action. Sadly, I don't see Pres. Bush wanting to protect us. The 'rule of law' doesn't seem to matter to Republicans WRT illegal immigration.
No 82% 1088
Total Votes 1325
Thanks for the ping. Also go to Numbers USA and send free FAXes to your congresscritters and others.
This madness has to stop.
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