Free Republic

Can't get enough of Barack Obama? How about an Obama license plate? Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White today unveiled an "Illinois Salutes Barack Obama" temporary license plate, which can be used for 60 days beginning Tuesday. The plates feature a smiling President Obama, seemingly gazing towards your temporary numbers. A waving American flag fills the background. The plates are only good through April 17. They cost $50 -- with proceeds benefiting Illinois libraries. The temporary "special event" plates are available at www.ila.org/obama.

Judges Need Clarification On Legality Of Illegal Immigrant WeddingsCOLUMBIA, S.C. -- South Carolina probate judges said they need clarification on whether illegal immigrants have a right to get married here.The State newspaper of Columbia reported Saturday that some judges want the attorney general to revisit a 2004 opinion that is being used to issue marriage licenses to illegal immigrants. They said the opinion lets people get licenses without proper identification.Others of the popularly elected judges said illegal immigrants can marry here.Florence County Probate Judge Kenneth Eaton is president of the South Carolina Probate Judges Association.Eaton told the newspaper that the...

Obama Wants Social Security for Illegals Added: 1 day ago

With Election Day right around the corner, the Republicans are bringing back an issue that brought them national media attention: Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer's long-dead plan to let illegal immigrants get driver's licenses. Assemblyman Greg Ball, an outspoken Hudson Valley Republican (particularly when it comes to all things immigration-related) who won a bitter GOP primary battle last month, and Rensselaer County Clerk Frank Merola, who sued over Spitzer's license plan, are holding a public hearing in Manhattan Thursday on "massive voter fraud potential" caused by the issuance of 23,000 licenses to non-citizens during the former governor's tenure. From the press...

After the Texas Department of Public Safety estimated 2 million of its 16 million licensed drivers are illegal aliens, the state is denying illegals access to IDs and driver's licenses. Texas is now requiring applicants to prove legal citizenship status before they can receive or renew their driver's licenses. And the plan goes one step further: Legal immigrants are now required to have their licenses stamped with "temporary visitor" and an expiration date for the applicants stay in the U.S. – a tip-off for police. Public Safety Commission Chairman Allan Polunsky of San Antonio told the Houston Chronicle he came...

A California bill that would allow undocumented immigrants to get drivers licenses is one step closer to becoming a state law. State senate bill 60 passed through the assembly Friday. If the bill becomes law, legislators say the estimated 2.2 million undocumented immigrants in California will apply for one, an idea that's creating a lot of controversy. "I think they should be able to get licenses just like everybody else," said Nicole Holland, a Fresnan who supports the bill. "They are already committing a crime coming over here," said Albert Ratliff, a Fresnan who opposes the bill. "I don't think...

West Virginia started Friday keeping driver's license photos out of a computer database for members of a small religious group who believe digital storage is a "mark of the beast" that evokes biblical prophecy. State Division of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Joseph Cicchirillo said the group of about 50 or 60 Christians, who are not affiliated with a particular church, contacted the agency two or three years ago to object to their pictures "being on a database that can be exchanged throughout the world or hacked into." One of the group members is Phil Hudok, who made headlines in 1999 when...

Gov. Martin O'Malley's decision to cooperate with the Bush administration on Real ID is a mistake. The decision turns clerks at Maryland's Motor Vehicle Administration into immigration officers, forcing them to ask prospective drivers about their immigration status and then assess the validity of documents - a troublesome chore even for well-trained immigration officers. Moreover, Real ID will push illegal immigrants further into the shadows, where they will be deterred from reporting crimes to police or using emergency rooms. Because those who drive will not have a license or liability insurance, the risk for all drivers will likely increase. Although...

These are Obama supporters, no doubt. Or many McCain supporters. Hard to tell anymore (via Oregonian blog):[snip -- embedded video clip omitted.]Background:Background: Oregon’s new drivers’ license rules took effect Monday, and the Oregon Legislature is considering placing the new rules in state law. That sparked demonstrations by groups supporting and opposing the new rules. The new rules make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to get an Oregon driver’s license, requiring a valid Social Security number and other documentation. Opponents of the new rules marched around the Capitol in protest, saying the rules are unfair and would end up hurting...

No More Licenses For Illegal Aliens In Michigan Mon, 12/31/2007 - 10:25 — Judicial Watch Blog One of the few states in the nation that still grants driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants will finally stop doing so now that its attorney general reversed a policy stating that it’s unconstitutional to deny licenses to those in the country illegally. Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox wrote in a lengthy opinion that illegal immigrants are ineligible for driver’s licenses, reversing his predecessor’s (Attorney General Frank Kelley) opinion that denying illegal aliens licenses violates the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause. Cox’s opinion is legally...

"Presionado por su propio partido, el gobernador demócrata Eliot Spitzer dijo que no ha descartado prescindir de un plan ampliamente criticado de otorgar licencias de conducir a los inmigrantes indocumentados, de acuerdo con algunos informes. La propuesta de Spitzer generó un debate político que ha repercutido en la campaña presidencial. El viernes el gobernador expresó que mantenía por ahora el plan, pero sugirió que podría considerar abandonarlo si no encuentra entusiasmo por él, reportó en su edición del sábado el diario The New York Times y otros periódicos neoyorquinos."See below for English/synopsis.

NEW YORK (AP) - Pressed anew on whether she supports granting driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday it depends on the state. In a CNN interview, Clinton, a New York senator, reiterated her support for governors who must contend with large populations of undocumented workers in the absence of federal immigration reform. She then was asked whether she thinks it is a "good idea" for governors to allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses. "It depends upon what state they're in. It depends upon what they think the risks are," Clinton said. "A governor of...

LAS VEGAS - Former President Clinton on Monday compared Republican criticism of his wife's position on driver's license for illegal immigrants to the ads that helped sink John Kerry's White House hopes in 2004. "I had the feeling that at the end of that last debate we were about to get into cutesy land again," Clinton told some 3,000 members of the American Postal Worker's Union at a convention. At the end of a televised Democratic presidential debate last week, Hillary Rodham Clinton hedged on whether she supported a plan by her home state governor, New York's Eliot Spitzer, to...

A driver's license bureau employee who earned roughly $24,000 a year made thousands on the side illegally selling licenses to Brazilian immigrants, state authorities said. Cammie Gray Andres, 46, a driver's license bureau employee since 2000, illegally charged at least five undocumented Brazilians between $2,500 and $3,000 for driver's licenses, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. Using bogus Social Security numbers, Andres falsely issued them under a program designed to exchange licenses for valid ones from U.S. territories such as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. She faces multiple counts of unlawfully issuing driver's licenses, official misconduct and unlawful...

The governor had the right idea on immigrant licenses, but his political malpractice has alienated both sides in this overheated debate Gov. Eliot Spitzer has dug a political hole so deep on driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants that the issue may be irretrievably entombed. That would be a shame. In this state, about a million undocumented immigrants live off the books and many drive without licenses or insurance. Bringing them into the system, while making it more secure overall, is the pragmatic thing to do. Spitzer's objective is sound, his intentions honorable. But that's not enough. Ideas have to be...

Governor Spitzer spent Friday afternoon defending his three tiered license plan that still includes giving licenses to illegals. He says, "This is a plan designed to increase security. Some folks are talking about this and viewing this as an immigration issue. If you want to talk about immigration raise that with our members of Congress." Lawmakers in Orleans and Genesee Counties continued to hammer the Governor's plan at a news conference Friday morning. Assemblyman Steve Hawley, Republican from Batavia, "It's not about immigration, it's not about aliens, it's about what legal and illegal and what’s right and wrong." A Channel...

Governor Eliot Spitzer says one benefit to giving licenses to illegal immigrants will be safer streets, but an author of a report the governor often cites in defense of his plan, says there is no proof this plan will make streets safe. NY1’s Josh Robin filed the following exclusive report. Governor Eliot Spitzer has cited a AAA report showing that those driving without a license are more dangerous to fellow motorist, as a defense for his driver’s license plan. "AAA found that, unsurprisingly, unlicensed drivers are more likely to be involved in hit-and-run accidents and five times more likely to...

Vocal critic does see advantage at border WASHINGTON — New York’s driver’s license deal with the federal government is likely to resolve concerns about a passport requirement at the Canadian border, but the state still could become a sanctuary for illegal aliens, thanks to Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer’s insistence on allowing them to obtain licenses, Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds said this week. In an interview, Reynolds — one of the first and most vociferous critics of Spitzer’s original plan to give driver’s licenses to illegal aliens — offered a mixed view of the agreement that Spitzer and Homeland Security Secretary...

Under Governor Spitzer’s plan, New York licenses to illegals would comply with ‘Real ID.’ Terrorists can get a license to drive yet they would not be able to use them to board airplanes or enter federal buildings. We gotcha, Senator Clinton. You are for facilitating terrorist travel within the United States; they just have to drive there. We sure hope they get car insurance, just in case they only have an accident.

(Washington, DC) –Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has filed a lawsuit on behalf of a New York taxpayer in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Suffolk County against New York Governor Eliot Spitzer over a new policy implemented on September 21, 2007 that will “give all New Yorkers the opportunity to apply for driver’s licenses without regard to immigration status” (Staudenraus v. Spitzer, Index No. 07-33872). According to New York State law, with respect to driver licenses, the DMV Commissioner “shall require that the applicant provide...

Immigration advocates cheered earlier this month when Gov. Eliot Spitzer quietly rolled back a post-9/11 state policy under which state driver’s licenses obtained by legal foreign visitors were marked with the words “temporary visitor� and the date that the visitor’s visa expired. The move followed his decision in late September to allow illegal immigrants to apply for driver’s licenses beginning early next year, with the administration arguing that it made no sense that the stamp would be superfluous under a policy where people get licenses even if they entered the county illegally. But as part of his shift to a...

NEW YORK -- Governor Spitzer took his license plan to a national audience today. He appeared on CNN American Morning, responding to comments CNN host Lou Dobbs made earlier. Dobbs said, "This man is sitting here putting together a three tier system of which he is going to give voter registration privileges to people he knows are illegal." On CNN American Morning, Governor Spitzer said, "Look, I'm not going to demean myself with getting into a back and forth with somebody who on TV spews venom, hate and fundamental misinformation, of course not. He knows that this has absolutely nothing...

<p>WASHINGTON - New York's plan to create three types of driver's licenses, including one for illegal immigrants, has everyone talking _ everyone except the state's Democratic senators, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer.</p> <p>New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, a fellow Democrat, announced over the weekend that he had struck a deal with federal homeland security officials to create a three-tiered state system of licenses.</p>

Spitzer is turning out to be a governor who won't admit he can make a mistake. Among new judges, this is called the black robe disease. I don't know what to call a new governor similarly infected, but this will come back to haunt him for sure. Look where it's gotten him already. At a public rally Monday at the Capitol, incensed New Yorkers were calling for his impeachment or recall. Admittedly, only a few, but still. Compare and contrast that with his gushy anointment as New York's Caesar for life a scant 10 months ago. The governor's hell-bent pursuit...

ALBANY - A key Republican lawmaker disclosed several "smoking gun" e-mails yesterday showing Gov. Spitzer's administration had OK'd funding for a local health-care clinic last month - before suddenly canceling the grant on Monday after his attack on Spitzer's plan to give driver's licenses to illegal aliens. Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco (R-Schenectady) revealed the records to back up his charge that Spitzer cut over $300,000 of his community projects to punish him for opposing the governor's licensing plan and not - as Spitzer contended yesterday - to help get state spending under control. "That's an outright lie," Tedisco's chief...

ALBANY, Oct. 16 — The CNN anchor Lou Dobbs calls Gov. Eliot Spitzer “a genius.� But not in a nice way. “I was being about as facetious as one could be,� Mr. Dobbs said in an interview Tuesday as he prepared for his nightly broadcast, “Lou Dobbs Tonight.� For the last nine days, the show has included discussion of Mr. Spitzer’s plan to allow illegal immigrants to apply for driver’s licenses. Mr. Dobbs, a pinstriped journalist turned populist crusader against illegal immigration, is not a fan. “It’s an abuse of power!� Mr. Dobbs thundered. “He is being absolutely irresponsible. When...

ALBANY - The images and commentary aren't subtle: Osama bin Laden hanging out in a New York City taxi driver's seat, a blog headlined "Moron Spitzer Forges Ahead with Licenses for Illegals." Gov. Eliot Spitzer's plan to make it easier for undocumented immigrants to get driver's licenses has been roundly assailed. "Crazy," said a county clerk. A threat to national security, said Rep. Randy Kuhl (R-N.Y.). A Poughkeepsie Journal editorial took a more measured approach, but still noted "taxpayers have a right to be both perplexed and outraged" over Spitzer's plan. In the Capitol, the political discourse has been more...

Assemblyman Greg Ball (R-Carmel) and members of the Assembly Republican Conference will be hosting a forum to discuss the Governor's new drivers' license plan. Experts on homeland security and immigration will lead the discussions. Also in attendance will be members of the Assembly Republican Conference, including Assemblyman Jim Bacalles (R,C-Corning), Assemblyman Phil Boyle (R,I,C-8th A.D.), Assemblyman Bill Reilich (R,C,I-Greece), and Assemblyman Lou Tobacco (R-South Shore), as well as Congressman and Republican Presidential hopeful, Tom Tancredo (6th District, Colorado). A variety of homeland security and immigration experts will be attending, including: Immigration and national security expert Mike Cutler; founder of the...

NYT: License Plan by Spitzer Gains Critic in Giuliani http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/29/nyregion/29license.html?adxnnl=1&ref=nyregion&adxnnlx=1191071931-iKp5Op+LAkNDE+6EroKKjg LOS ANGELES, Sept. 28 Rudolph W. Giuliani joined the chorus of Republicans opposing a plan by the New York governor, Eliot Spitzer, to allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses, calling the proposal a "mistake" that would only lead to greater chaos. newsday: Feud over driver's licenses for aliens continues: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--licensespat0928sep28,0,5457031.story ALBANY, N.Y. - Republican Assembly leader James Tedisco said Osama bin Laden is likely popping champagne over Gov. Eliot Spitzer's new plan to allow illegal immigrants to get New York driver's licenses. Buffalo News: Spitzer’s driver's license policy for...

Should illegal immigrants be allowed to get vaild NYS drivers licenses? (bottom right on page)

COOPERSTOWN NY A change in requirements intended to make it easier for illegal immigrants to renew their state drivers' licenses does not sit well with some county clerks, including Otsego County Clerk Kathy Sinnott-Gardner. ``I don't see why we should make the requirements more lenient for illegal immigrants than they are for our own citizens,'' she said. Last week, Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer and Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner David Swarts announced the DMV would no longer require non-citizens to produce Social Security numbers when renewing their licenses. State law has required all license applicants to show either Social Security...

No is winning 3-1

There were 35 busloads from Chicago on Thursday to the State Capitol in Springfield pushing for licenses for people without social security numbers, about 2,000-2,500 protesters. No immigration police though.

Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles employees are routinely and unlawfully denying driver's licenses to immigrants who are here legally, according to a class-action law suit filed yesterday. According to the suit, Registry workers asked the immigrants for proof of legal residency when they were not authorized to do so. The workers then denied licenses to the applicants, incorrectly concluding that the immigrants had not demonstrated they were in the United States legally, the suit alleges. In all cases, the immigrants' lawyers said, the Registry workers were overstepping their legal authority and violating the immigrants' constitutional rights. "They don't have the...

DMV - Oregon accepts documents from foreigners but will not accept proof from out-of-state tribes It's easier for illegal immigrants to get a driver's license in Oregon than it is for Native Americans who show up at DMV counters with identification from out-of-state tribes. About half the states in the nation allow some form of tribal documentation to secure a driver's license or identification card. Some want federal proof, some require tribal proof and some will accept either. Of those 28 states, two -- Oregon and New York -- restrict that to documents from in-state tribes only, according to information...

The operators of a Kansas City truck driving school were among 15 defendants indicted in a scheme to fraudulently provide commercial driver's licenses to more than 70 Somali and Bosnian nationals, federal authorities said Thursday. The 62-count indictment, returned under seal by a federal grand jury Wednesday in Springfield, was unsealed and made public at a news conference Thursday in Kansas City upon the arrests and initial court appearances of the defendants. According to Bradley Schlozman, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, defendants in the case are: Dean P. Proffitt, 71, and Orbin Dale May, 63, both of...

D.C. Council members have long distributed to family and friends special license plates that have accrued more than $20,000 in city parking fines, which the plate owners likely will not have to pay. Since the early 1970s, council members and the mayor have bestowed the license plates -- which feature low numbers -- as political prizes. The 13 council members have exempted themselves from parking restrictions and fines since 2001. When lawmakers leave office, the plates they have distributed are supposed to be returned to the city to be reassigned to new officials. However, the tickets owed on those plates...

Associated Press ALBANY, N.Y. Governor Pataki is proposing legislation that would keep personal information on sportsmen's licenses from being disclosed to the public. Pataki says the law would protect the privacy of people whose personal information is attached to the hundreds of thousands of hunting, fishing and trapping licenses issued each year by the state Department of Environmental Conservation. The Pataki administration and the Democrat-controlled state Assembly have been fighting over access to the information. A state judge sided last year with the D-E-C, which decided in 2004 that releasing the data under the state Freedom of Information Law was...

Lola Pfeifer's ride is a 1998 Oldsmobile Bravada sport utility vehicle, 190 horses beneath the hood and 4,000 pounds of motoring muscle on the road. Pfeifer is 85, a great-grandmother, a veteran road warrior who recalls the days of 17-cent-a-gallon gas yet still confidently goes with the modern traffic flow on Milwaukee's streets. "I don't think I irritate younger drivers," she says. "I keep within the speed limits. If I'm going too slowly, the younger drivers will pass me by." With every left turn taken and stop sign negotiated, Pfeifer displays her independence and embodies a new era on the...

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee's driving certificate for illegal immigrants isn't valid as a form of ID, but people are paying hundreds of dollars on the black market and traveling hundreds of miles to get one. Tennessee has issued more than 51,000 certificates since it became the first state to offer them in July 2004, but not every certificate has gone to someone living there. Two major federal arrests in recent months exposed shuttles bringing South and Central American immigrants from as far away as New Jersey to state licensing centers in Knoxville, where the immigrants got certificates using fake residency...

KNOXVILLE -- Tennessee's driving certificate for illegal immigrants isn't supposed to be valid as a form of ID, but it's so popular that people are paying hundreds of dollars and traveling hundreds of miles to get one. Tennessee has issued more than 51,000 certificates since 2004 when it became the first state in the nation to offer them -- since joined by Utah. But not every certificate has gone to someone living in Tennessee. Two major federal arrests in recent months exposed black-market shuttles carrying South and Central American immigrants south from New Jersey and north from Georgia to state...

Suspects accused of bribery, conspiracy, helping immigrants get fake licenses A widespread bribery scheme funneled hundreds of illegal aliens into a Winchester, Tenn.-based driving school, netting them fraudulent licenses. And six people, including one current and one former state employee, got more than $146,000, federal prosecutors said yesterday. The U.S. attorney's office yesterday unsealed a six-count indictment of the six people who are accused of helping hundreds of people since May 2004 obtain driver's licenses they didn't earn. They have been charged with bribing state employees, accepting bribes and conspiracy. About 100 people who got the fake licenses have been...

Microsoft has launched an attack on existing open source "licensing proliferation" claiming that the system is confusing and unnecessarily challenging for software developers. Jason Matusow, director of Microsoft's Shared Source Initiative, told vnunet.com that the large number of open source licences currently in use is counterproductive.  "I believe that there are 55 or 56 open source approved licences. These have come about because source code is somebody's property and they have chosen to license according to their needs. We believe that developers should license code as they see fit," he said. "But the biggest challenges come from additional licences. Let's...

I went to the DMV yesterday to renew my driver's license. I had an appointment and was pleasantly surprised. I got right in. But then things went down hill from there. LOL I had attended traffic school in May in order to have a citation I received in November removed from my record. And wouldn't you know. It had not been removed. I also found out that a citation from 2000 had not been removed either(went to traffic school for that one too LOL) I was "thumb printed" for the first time. Picture taken but was not given an eye...

A majority of Latinos born in the United States don't think illegal Hispanic immigrants should be given drivers' licenses, according to a new poll. Most foreign-born Latinos disagree, according to the polling for the Pew Hispanic Center. Six in 10 Latinos born in this country approve of measures to prohibit illegal immigrants from getting drivers' licenses, while two-thirds born in another country disapprove of such measures.

A Virginia man who worked as a manager at a Department of Motor Vehicles office at Springfield Mall and his wife, a former DMV clerk, were arrested yesterday by federal agents on charges of selling valid driver's licenses for as much as $3,500 each -- mostly to illegal aliens. U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty said Francisco J. Martinez, 57, and his wife, Miriam, 56, both of Stafford, Va., have been charged with conspiracy to commit identification fraud and conspiracy to produce Virginia driver's licenses by fraud, both felonies. If convicted, they could get 15 years in prison and fines totaling...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - State Sen. Gil Cedillo is making his fifth attempt in seven years to enact legislation allowing illegal immigrants to get California driver's licenses. This time he's hoping to get a governor's signature that will stick. Former Gov. Gray Davis signed a Cedillo bill legalizing the licenses in 2003, but lawmakers overturned it after Davis was recalled following a campaign in which the license legislation was one of the issues used against him. Davis' successor, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, signed the repeal bill and vetoed another version of the license bill last year, saying it didn't include adequate security...

Fraud shock for illegal drivers May 15 2005 08:11:00:000PM By: Lizel Steenkamp       Drivers licence co dodgy - DA   Fake drivers licences cancelled   'Licence dealer' gets four years   Licences: Process to blame   Over 50% of new licences invalid   Johannesburg - Insurance companies and banks could bring fraud charges against millions of motorists who launched claims and had financing approved for vehicle purchases on the grounds of an invalid licence. A senior transport official told Rapport, sister publication of Finance24, that about 3.5 million motorists, who obtained their driver's licences illegally, might escape...

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Vicente Fox called recent U.S. measures to stem illegal immigration a step back for bilateral relations on Friday and said Mexican migrants do jobs "that not even blacks want to do." In comments likely to raise the temperature of the immigration debate, Fox defended the role of undocumented Mexican workers in the United States to a group of Texas business people meeting in Mexico. "There is no doubt that Mexicans, filled with dignity, willingness and ability to work are doing jobs that not even blacks want to do there in the United States," he...

A Video of Lou Dobbs interviewing, Peter Gadiel (PRESIDENT, 9/11 FAMILIES FOR A SECURE AMERICA) DOBBS: "We talked, of course, as we have a number of times, with the consulate of Mexico. They said that the card you have they simply wanted to let you know that it was invalid and they have a far more secure one now. GADIEL: "Right. Well, I took care of that problem. Hal Netkin (ph), a friend of mine out in California, got me -- got me a new one. And while I was in the process, he also got you one." DOBBS: "Oh,...