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SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) -- The administration of Gov. Bill Richardson is proposing that illegal immigrants who apply for a New Mexico driver's license be fingerprinted for background checks. The move would strengthen border security and ensure that applicants for licenses "are who they say they are," Taxation and Revenue Secretary Jan Goodwin said Wednesday. New Mexico is one of 11 states that don't require driver's license applicants to prove they are legal residents of the United States. The state lets foreign nationals present a passport, a federal tax identification number or a consular identification card to apply for a...

Scott Gardner of Mount Holly, N.C., was on vacation and heading to the coast with his family when his station wagon was struck by a truck driven by Ramiro Gallegos, an illegal alien charged three times previously with drunk driving. Gardner family's station wagon Gardner, the father of two young children, was killed. Gallegos of Mexico was charged with second-degree murder and driving while impaired. It is uncertain where Gallegos was going at the time, but it is not surprising that he was in North Carolina. The state's requirements to obtain a driver's license are weaker than those of many...

The United States is about to make it more difficult for people to get a driver's license. The Real I.D. act would standardize license requirements nationwide - forcing all 50 states to verify that each applicant is in the country legally. Some say the bill, passed by Congress this week, is the first step toward establishing a U.S. national ID card. For almost a century, each U.S. state has been responsible for issuing its own driver's licenses. There has been no national standard. Eleven states currently grant licenses to non-citizens. A license can be used to do many things in...

PROVIDENCE -- About 30 opponents of legislation that would link getting a driver's license to a motorist's immigration status, marched into Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee's downtown office yesterday, exercising one example of democracy while learning about another: The game of politics, Washington style. The office visitors, members of the American Friends Service Committee and a group called ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), had hoped to meet with Chafee and persuade him to vote against the legislation. The senator, however, wasn't in the office; he was in Washington, D.C. So his office staff politely connected them via...

Inquiry finds evidence of fraud in election Cast ballots outnumber voters by 4,609 By GREG J. BOROWSKIgborowski@journalsentinel.com Posted: May 10, 2005 Investigators said Tuesday they found clear evidence of fraud in the Nov. 2 election in Milwaukee, including more than 200 cases of felons voting illegally and more than 100 people who voted twice, used fake names or false addresses or voted in the name of a dead person. Election Investigation Photo/Karen SherlockU.S. Attorney Steven M. Biskupic (left), with Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann, delivers the preliminary findings of a task force examining possible election fraud at the...

Congress set to impose ID card rules States would need to verify papers By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff | May 5, 2005 WASHINGTON -- Congressional negotiators have agreed on a sweeping new system that would nationalize standards for driver's licenses and state identification cards, requiring states to verify the authenticity of every document that people use to prove their identity and show their legal residency. If the House and Senate both pass the bill next week as expected, by May 2008 every state will be required to contact the issuers of birth certificates, mortgage statements, utility bills, Social Security cards,...

It is against the law to deny an illegal alien a driver's license, says the executive director of an immigration-rights advocacy group in Maryland, presumably with a straight face and without the help of a laugh track. The advocacy group obviously picks which laws to embrace. An illegal alien is an illegal alien, after all. Given the potential usefulness of this upside-down appeal, an advocacy group for pickpockets is perhaps an idea whose time is nearing. If so, in these enlightened times, the group undoubtedly would seek assault charges against anyone who might clamp down on the wrist of the...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Thousands of illegal immigrants have obtained driver's licenses in three states, federal authorities said Thursday, highlighting a security hole that the Sept. 11 hijackers exploited. Three employees of Florida's motor vehicles agency were among 52 people arrested in a bribery scam that put driver's licenses in the hands of at least 2,000 illegal immigrants, officials said. The case, announced Thursday, follows similar arrests in Michigan and Maryland over the past week. "With a valid driver's license, you establish an identity," said Michael Garcia, assistant secretary of the Homeland Security Department. "There's no way to identify whether that...

"AS Passed By the House" (17) The sticker or decal described in subsection (2)(c)(vii) may be provided by any person, hospital, school, medical group, or association interested in assisting in implementing the emergency medical information card, but shall meet the specifications of the secretary of state. The emergency medical information card may contain the information described in subsection (2)(c)(vi), information concerning the licensee's patient advocate designation, other emergency medical information, or an indication as to where the licensee has stored or registered emergency medical information. (18) Beginning January 1, 2007, the secretary of state shall inquire of each licensee, in...

Jesus J. Robles-Sanchez, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, was convicted by a Jefferson County jury last week of second-degree assault and driving without a license for a crash in May that injured a woman in Herculaneum. Assistant Prosecutor Steve Jerrell said Robles-Sanchez was driving drunk on Commercial Boulevard at Riverview Drive in Herculaneum on May 7, when his SUV struck the rear of a car driven by Angela Biehle as she waited to turn left onto Riverview Drive.

WASHINGTON — Hoping to keep drivers licenses out of the hands of terrorists (search), the House voted Thursday to make states verify that applicants are U.S. citizens or legal immigrants. Republicans pushed the measure through on a 261-161 vote despite protests from governors and state motor vehicle departments that it would be too costly and would require them to take on the role of immigration officers. The bill also would make it easier for judges to deport immigrants seeking political asylum if they think they might be terrorists. "Common sense says we should not allow suspected terrorists to be able...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Although reshaping U.S. immigration law is a priority of President Bush's second term, his proposal for a guestworker program wasn't on the table as the Republican-controlled House took up an immigration bill this week. Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, sponsor of the bill scheduled for a vote Thursday, said his legislation deals with border security. Including Bush's guestworker proposal or other measures would muddy the debate and mark all immigrants as terrorists, he said. "I think they are two separate issues. The immigration question is something the Judiciary Committee will handle later on,"

The National ID card is back in the news, as Congress is getting set once again to debate the issue. You will remember that late last year, Congress passed (and the President signed) legislation which starts us down the road to a National ID card. In the name of preventing alien terrorists from operating in this country, the so-called Intelligence Reform bill gave federal bureaucrats unprecedented new powers to force changes in state-issued driver's licenses -- including, possibly, the addition of computer chip technology that can facilitate the tracking of all U.S. citizens. Now, the House will be debating new...

H.R.418 is a measure before the House that will strictly control use of drivers'licences by illegal aliens and Grsssfire has sent a petition with over 110,000 signatures to Congress urging their support. They also gave a phone number,202-224-3121, by which one can contact one's representative in DC. To my amazement I delivered my message to my congressman's office in less than two minutes! Everyone concerned about illegals and the threat some potentially pose to national security should become involved!

WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 - Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, the House majority leader, said Tuesday that conservatives might be able to compromise with President Bush on his proposal allowing illegal immigrants to work in the United States legally. Such a compromise could entail, for example, requiring illegal immigrants to return to their native countries to apply for the program, Mr. DeLay said. Advertisement Mr. DeLay said he talked recently with the president, who has advocated a guest worker program that would be open to workers who are currently in the country illegally as well as to newcomers.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The county Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to continue to accept identification cards issued by foreign consulates but to train county employees to help them detect fraudulent cards. The decision came after Supervisor Mike Antonovich announced he had been given a fraudulent Mexican identification card with his own photo on it and urged fellow supervisors not to accept the cards. The motion passed by a 3-2 vote with Supervisors Gloria Molina, Yvonne B. Burke and Zev Yaroslavsky in favor, and Antonovich and Don Knabe voting against the measure. The Mexican consular cards are by far the...

FEBRUARY 7, 2005 - Action 4 News undercover cameras catch Border Patrol agents dropping off illegal immigrants at a local bus station by the van load. How do we know the immigrants are not possible terrorists? You'll soon find out we don't! Could this be a sign of border breakdown? New Year's Eve morning agents pull up to the Valley Transit bus station in Harlingen, open the back of their van and a hand full of illegal immigrants jump out. But that's just the beginning, six days later more illegal immigrants were set free, free to travel anywhere they want...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A ragged fence and a canyon called Smugglers Gulch mark the westernmost stretch of the California-Mexico border, a favorite crossing point for illegal immigrants and drug runners.

Immigration Bill Could Settle Fight Over California-Mexico Border FenceBy Erica Werner Associated Press Writer Published: Feb 5, 2005 WASHINGTON (AP) - A ragged fence and a canyon called Smugglers Gulch mark the westernmost stretch of the California-Mexico border, a favorite crossing point for illegal immigrants and drug runners. The federal government and a powerful local Republican congressman have been pushing for years to fortify the 3 1/2-mile stretch of border just north of Tijuana, Mexico. Their plan is opposed by California coastal regulators and environmentalists who say it could harm a fragile Pacific estuary. Now supporters may be getting closer...

H.R.418 Title: To establish and rapidly implement regulations for State driver's license and identification document security standards, to prevent terrorists from abusing the asylum laws of the United States, to unify terrorism-related grounds for inadmissibility and removal, and to ensure expeditious construction of the San Diego border fence. Sponsor: Rep Sensenbrenner, F. James, Jr. [WI-5] (introduced 1/26/2005) Cosponsors (125) Latest Major Action: 1/26/2005 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committees on Homeland Security, and Government Reform, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case...