Cal. Law Letting Illegal Immigrants re Driver's License

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Sep 19, 2003
California Law Letting Illegal Immigrants Get Driver's Licenses Stirs Excitement
By Deborah Kong - The Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Housepainter Carlos Ponce Rodriguez has been driving to work for three years without a license. Rodriguez doesn't want to be a scofflaw. But because he lacks immigration papers, he can't get a license.

That could change under a new state law that could let an estimated 2 million illegal immigrants get drivers licenses. Though it doesn't take effect until Jan. 1, the law has already generated excitement and opposition across the state. One recent morning, Rodriguez joined a line stretching down the block outside the Mexican consulate to apply for a consular ID, one identification document allowed under the new drivers-license law.

"I need a license to go to work," said Rodriguez, 23, who drove a taxi in Cancun before moving to Walnut Creek three years ago. "I think it is a good law because not only can one move places in a safer way, but one will also be able to get insurance, and that also brings more safety."

The San Francisco consulate where Rodriguez was waiting used to issue about 150 consular IDs a day. That number doubled the day after the law was signed two weeks ago, and the daily average is now about 250, said spokesman Bernardo Mendez. Other consulates in California reported similar increases.

Undocumented immigrants now take care to avoid police, said San Diego consulate spokesman Alberto Lozano, but with licenses, "they will be more confident driving through the freeways and in the city."

The effects of the new law are showing up elsewhere, too.

The GNC Driving School in Santa Ana, which serves many immigrants from Latin America and Asia, is getting about 25 calls a day from would-be students.

"After the law was signed, it's just been crazy," operator Ricardo Aguirre said.

About a dozen other states allow undocumented immigrants who are state residents to apply for driver's licenses, according to the National Immigration Law Center.

California's new law lets driver's license applicants submit federal taxpayer numbers instead of Social Security numbers. It also lifts a requirement that applicants prove they are legal residents and allows them to submit documents like the Mexican consular ID to verify their identity.

The new law has been both celebrated and criticized, a sign of how it cuts to the heart of the contentious national debate over immigration and the role of undocumented immigrants.

Proponents say letting them get driver's licenses is a matter of public safety. Licensed drivers know the rules of the road and can buy insurance, making the streets safer for everyone, said David Galaviz, legislative director to Democratic state Sen. Gilbert Cedillo, who introduced the bill.

It could also help law enforcement by expanding state data on who is driving, Galaviz said.

Critics say the law compromises national security. In a letter to Gov. Gray Davis, 20 members of the California Republican congressional delegation said the law "erodes our state's ability to protect against terrorist attacks."

Some have accused Davis, who twice vetoed earlier bills, of pandering to Hispanics as he fights to save his job. Chief rival Arnold Schwarzenegger opposes the law and has said he'd try to repeal it if elected governor.

A group called Save Our License is already working to collect signatures to overturn the law by placing a referendum on a ballot next March.

Illegal immigrants who are "breaking the law to be in the country" shouldn't be rewarded "with something that is a privilege, not a right in the United States," said Jeff Evans, a spokesman for the Republican-backed campaign.

Despite some uncertainty over the law's fate, many are still enthusiastic.

Driving could mean a less arduous morning commute for Patricia Barbosa, who cleans hotels in Napa. Barbosa, 22, usually takes a bus to work, but has trouble catching one for early shifts. Instead, she walks 40 minutes to get to work.

Julio Mendez, a 19-year-old construction worker from Napa, sees growing opportunities: "It will allow us to look for other jobs, to comply with the law."
-------------------------
Associated Press writer Maria-Belen Moran contributed to this report.

This story can be found at: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAHPNKWSKD.html

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I think adding driver's licenses to the ingredients to the pot of benefits enjoyed by people that are here illegally, will make make our open door policy even more attractive. What ever happened to the requirement for people that want to be citizens to present signed requests for US citizenship? After that, there were many privileges and benefits they could legally apply for. They then had five years to study for the citizenship test. There were always big celebrations when the tests were passed, and the new citizens were sworn in. Confused

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I know what you mean Olen. More and more, we are giving legal recognition to an illegal status.

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Of course these immigrants should be allowed to have licenses -- and health care and education.

They are human beings doing the best they can to support their families and better their lives. Why do so many people want to deny them basic human needs.

This opposition to an act of compassion demonstrates the very worst of human nature. People trying to protect their priveledge by pushing down those who are willing to work to better themselves.

...and this "illegal" argument is merely a smokescreen for cruelty. How many of us would not break laws that prevent us and our children from escaping poverty.

The immigration laws in this country are designed to create a underclass of people who are trapped in poverty. This country was built by immigrants who were given the chance to better themselves -- and worked very hard to do so.

Immigrants in my family (who happened to be Irish) faced the same kind of petty ill-will from small minded Americans. I am only grateful that there have always been enough Americans who realized that compassion and humanity are virtues that strengthen -- not threaten -- our nation.

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Rather than granting them licences they should be given one way tickets out of this nation. That is unless illegal no longer means breaking the law. Why have laws that are meaningless?

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roger and au the solution you are both implying is, of course, the correct one. We should change these cruel and arbritary immigration laws that break up families and lock people into poverty.

Unfortunately economic downturns and wars on terrorism tend to bring out knee-jerk anti-immigrant sentiment.

To allow people who are living in our communities and working for us to have a license seems like a no-brainer.

First, if Americans didn't want immigrants here, they wouldn't be here. We accept them (i.e. give them jobs, befriend them, marry them etc.) becuase they add to our economic and social lives. If we didn't want them here, they would not be able to stake out the meaningful lives that many find here.

That some Americans based on fear and spite pass these ludicrous, inequal and unenforceable laws is a testament to the affect of unimaginative politicians supported by narrow-minded constituaencies.

Secondly, even if on principle you are opposed to these people living here, do you think it is wise to create this large group of people who are forced to live under the radar.

It seems that considering the current terrorist hysteria, you want to let people come out and live in the open. If there are millions of people who you are forcing to live in the shadows because of your mean-spiritedness, how are you going to find the small number of people who are living in the shadows to do us harm?

Sorry au, you can't give them all one way tickets. There are too many Americans who actually want them here, and *you* can not step on my rights to have them as neighbors or family.

But for the sake of decency or for the sake of security, don't force people to live lives that are more difficult, just because of spite.

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Brown
If as you say that they are wanted or even needed than they should be able to come in through the front door. In other words apply for emigration. Than we would know who is entering this nation and at the same time keep the undesirables out.

Quote:

*you* can not step on my rights to have them as neighbors or family.

No you can live where and with whom you wish. But they do not have a legal right to have you as a neighbor.

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Au,

Ahh au, you get right to the root of the problem...

Please define what you mean by "undesirable"....

... and don't cop out by saying "people who break immigration laws are undesirable" since that is quite a circular argument. These laws are worthy of being broken as they are unjust, cruel and unenforcable.

Americans have a long history of breaking these types of law including bans on homosexuality and miscegenation.

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Criminals and even heaven forbid terrorists. This as any nation has a right to determine who should be allowed to enter and live here and who should not. Just as you have the right to say who may and who may not enter your house.

You seem to be under the impression that only laws that you agree with need be followed. Could you imagine the anarchy that would exist if everyone had your attitude?

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By all means, improve the immigration laws. Until then, and after that, enforce the laws we have.

Indeed, some of them are not only senseless, but counterproductive.

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Au,

Americans have very often disobeyed laws they have disagreed with. I don't have to imagine what would happen. Historically this attitude has brought about the end to slavery, the civil rights movement, the end of prohibition, civil rights for homosexuals, the labor movement ... need I go on. Far from a source of anarchy, my attitude is the bedrock for the greatest successes of justice under American democracy.

I won't argue with you about the terrific danger of terrorism from Mexican immigrants.

----
"Must a citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right."
-Thoreau

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Brown

Quote:

Americans have very often disobeyed laws they have disagreed with. I don't have to imagine what would happen. Historically this attitude has brought about the end to slavery, the civil rights movement, the end of prohibition, civil rights for homosexuals, the labor movement ...

I don't see how you can equate any of that with 13 million illegal in this country.
Slavery ended with the civil war, Prohibition ended by law, civil rights with the passage of laws. These things were fought and won in the court of law
What by the way would you change regarding immigration. Would you do away with the INS and hang out a shingle saying come one come all?

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I haven't piped in here since ebrown represents my opinion so well. Which isn't fair, for me not to explain more, and I plan to, just not in this particularly harried week.

In any case, I think it is an interesting clash of viewpoints.

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State Department Computers Hit by Virus

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 11:37 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The State Department's electronic system for checking every visa applicant for terrorist or criminal history failed worldwide for several hours late Tuesday because of a computer virus, leaving the U.S. government briefly unable to issue visas.
The virus crippled the department's Consular Lookout and Support System, known as CLASS, which contains more than 12.8 million records from the FBI, the State Department and U.S. immigration, drug-enforcement and intelligence agencies. Among the names are those of at least 78,000 suspected terrorists.
In an internal message sent late Tuesday to embassies and consular offices worldwide, officials cautioned that ``CLASS is down due to a virus found in the system.'' There was no backup system immediately available, and officials said they could not predict how long the outage might last.
Within hours, the system was back up and running. A spokeswoman for the U.S. embassy in Seoul, Maureen Cormack, said it was a ``short outage'' and ``not a major problem.'' She said interviews for visa applicants continued but any decisions could not be made until the system was back up.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Joanne Moore said the agency experienced some computer problems but could not confirm the visa-checking system was affected.
``We did have some computer problems,'' she said. ``They're working on it.''
Every visa applicant is checked against the names in the CLASS database. The State Department's automated systems are designed to not even print a visa until such a check is completed.
It was unclear which computer virus might have affected the system. But a separate message sent to embassies and consular offices late Tuesday warned that the ``Welchia'' virus had been detected in one facility. Welchia is an aggressive infection unleashed last month that exploits a software flaw in recent versions of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows software.
Collectively, Welchia and a related virus, ``Blaster,'' have infected hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide, including computers at the Federal Reserve in Atlanta, Maryland's motor vehicle agency and the Minnesota Transportation Department.
The State Department has invested heavily in the CLASS system since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, more than doubling the number of names that applicants are checked against. One provision of the Patriot Act, passed just weeks after the attacks, added FBI records, including the bureau's violent gang and terrorist database. The list also includes the names of at least 20,000 people accused of serious Customs violations and the names of 78,000 suspected terrorists.

This system only deals with legal entry into the US. Our southern border offers passage for illegal entrance. Which seems to be acceptable by some here.

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Au, you miss my point.

I am just pointing out that these historical changes came with, and because of, the willingness of many Americans to break unjust laws.

The abolition movement to end slavery featured the "Underground Railroad" in which American citizens gave support and shelter to escaping slaves. These actions were most definately criminal.

Prohibition was ended amid the prevelence of speak-easy's and gin running. These criminal actions occured becuase a large number of American citizens defied prohibition.

The Civil rights movement was centered around people willing to break the law. They included Rosa Parks who refused to give up her seat, and people who illegally integrated lunch counters.

The homosexual rights movement continued in spite of medieval anti-sodomy laws which I believe are still on the books in many states.

Yes, I vote. I will do what I can politically to change the immigration laws. The first thing we need is 245(i). I hope you all will call your representatives to support this (it is currently simmering in commitee).

It is also my right and responsibility to defy those laws that are not only illogical, but inhumane.

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Brown
I fully understand your point. I just do not believe the situations are analogous.

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You folks read way too much into this. California is in dire financial straits. The governor/legislature is looking for any and all ways to get more revenues without having to raise taxes for those already paying.

If the goal is to not raise taxes for those already paying then you need to figure out who is not already paying and assess taxes on them. Thus, the reasoning behind taxes on Indian gambling casinos and illegal immigrants being granted the right to start paying into the coffers of the state treasury.

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Cal. Law Letting Illegal Immigrants re Driver's License

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