Posted on 08/18/2004 9:20:22 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Legislatures across the country have been wrestling publicly with a hot-button issue: whether to make it harder or easier for illegal immigrants to be licensed as drivers. The struggle to reconcile public security, road safety and the reality of millions of illegal immigrant workers has led to fierce disagreement and widely different laws - even as the 9/11 commission has urged the adoption of national standards.
In New York, home to an estimated 500,000 of the nation's 10 million illegal immigrants, there has been little public debate. But behind the scenes, officials at the State Department of Motor Vehicles have begun a crackdown on license fraud that will take away the driver's licenses of as many as 200,000 immigrants who cannot prove that they are here legally.
There was scant reaction in January when the state started mailing out the first of a half-million letters threatening to suspend the licenses of drivers whose Social Security numbers did not match federal records. Fear and protest spread in places like Westchester County and Staten Island as the letters reached longtime immigrant drivers who depend on their cars to work as landscapers, construction workers or housecleaners.
And the outcry grew as immigrant advocates learned of cases in which bewildered immigrants who responded in person to motor vehicle offices had their licenses confiscated on the spot for lack of a Social Security number.
Today the protests, and explanations by the crackdown's authors, will be presented in Manhattan at the first public hearing on the policy, by the State Assembly's Transportation Committee.
It is late in the process: though only about 600 licenses have been suspended so far, state officials said that in November, a second wave of notices would begin suspending the licenses of those who have not responded, at the rate of 4,000 a day.
State officials say 250,000 licenses are in line to be suspended, and immigrant advocates estimate that 200,000 of these are held by immigrants unable to satisfy the state's requirement.
State officials say they are not aiming the effort at immigrants, just seizing on new technology to enforce an old law - a 1995 requirement that the state collect the Social Security numbers of all driver's license applicants. That measure was added in many states to improve child-support enforcement, as part of the nation's welfare overhaul. But New York is the only state where motor vehicle officials are using enhanced computer abilities to verify all the Social Security numbers collected over the years.
The results have been eye-opening, Raymond P. Martinez, the state motor vehicles commissioner, said in an interview. "
The public is going to be shocked when they find out how many people's Social Security numbers were used by other people unbeknownst to them," he said, putting the figure at more than 100,000, including one number that was used by 57 people.
Among those whose licenses have already been suspended are United States citizens who were hiding criminal driving records behind multiple identities, he said. And in an era of terror alerts, when driver's licenses are used to enter buildings, he added, "We now have the ability to verify who is who."
But critics say the enforcement will fall mainly on illegal immigrants who are hard-working members of society - and to local D.M.V. clerks with no understanding of complicated immigration laws.
"Nobody has considered the bureaucratic nightmare that they're creating," said Margaret Stock, an associate professor of national security law at the United States Military Academy at West Point, who is writing a paper on the driver's license issue. "It's actually harmful to national security to deny licenses to people on the basis of immigration status."
Ms. Stock, who is also a lieutenant colonel in the military police of the Army Reserves, said there was a better chance of tracking a terrorist with a driver's license than one without. Moreover, she said, "immigration status is a moving target - someone legal today can be illegal tomorrow and someone illegal today can be legal tomorrow," so motor vehicle offices can end up issuing and denying licenses to the wrong people.
Yet thousands of illegal immigrants denied driver's licenses will continue to drive, she said, and probably add to the number of hit-and-run accidents and uninsured drivers already on the road.
The real problem, she said, is that since 9/11, officials have been trying to turn the driver's license into "a backdoor national identity card." But, she added, "driver's licenses are really about road safety."
Because of the heightened fear of detention or deportation these days, it remains uncertain whether illegal immigrants will come forward to testify at today's hearing at 250 Broadway, said Gouri Sadwhani, executive director of the New York Civic Participation Project, an immigrant and labor organizing group. But two people whose licenses were abruptly seized by a motor vehicle clerk shared their accounts with a reporter on the condition that only their first names be published.
Luis, 34, a construction worker who has long been employed by a Connecticut subcontractor building multimillion-dollar homes in places like Greenwich, said he was so alarmed by the letter he received in January that he drove from his home in Port Chester, N.Y., to D.M.V. headquarters in Albany.
Trying to prove his identity, he presented his taxpayer ID number, credit card, rent receipts, utility bills and car insurance. But he said a clerk who demanded a Social Security number took his license and refused to return it. "I started pleading," he recalled. "I said I need my license - I need my license to work, I need my license to support my family and I need my license to live," he recalled.
But after threatening him with detention for putting the wrong number on his application years ago - probably his tax ID number, he said - the clerk walked away. State motor vehicle officials said that they could not discuss the case without Luis's full name.
"It's like the D.M.V. has cut off my arms and legs," he said last week in the immaculate apartment that he, his wife and their 3-year-old son shared with three other immigrants from Ecuador. His earnings, which must support two children left with grandparents in Ecuador, as well as his family here, typically ran $20,000 to $25,000 a year, he said. But they have dwindled since his boss learned that he had lost his license.
Still, Luis said, there is no going back. In Ecuador, he and his wife were so desperate for work to support their children that they left them behind and walked much of the way to the United States.
And he is still driving. He carefully steered his old minivan past the flashing lights of a parked police car on a rain-slicked street in Port Chester on Friday evening, as he worried aloud that his insurance would soon be canceled.
But Gloria, a Colombian woman who has lived in Queens since 1991, said she had not driven since the January day when her license was confiscated at the Whitestone motor vehicle office. She had been a licensed driver for 11 years, she said, selling Mary Kay cosmetics from her car to help support her daughter, an American citizen by birth, while working weekends as a baby-sitter for a family of lawyers living on Sutton Place in Manhattan.
"I feel humiliated because I think there's no reason to take it from me," she said. "I was a good driver; I never got a ticket for a red light or passed a stop sign. I always had insurance."
Like many immigrants in what some call a gray zone of legality, she has a petition for a green card pending, sponsored by her 76-year-old mother, now a lawful permanent resident. But under present immigration rules and backlogs, family sponsorship can take many years to bridge the gap between citizens and unlawful immigrants in the same family. Meanwhile, Gloria has no way to fulfill the state's requirements to get back her license.
The hardest part has not only been the loss of earnings - about $1,000 a month in cosmetic sales - but the effect on her mother and her daughter, now 12, she said. Only last week, her mother, who is frail and speaks no English, begged her to accompany her on a flight to Florida to visit relatives. But without a driver's license as a photo ID, it was too risky.
"My daughter was crying and saying please don't go," Gloria said. "She feels so afraid about what happened to me now."
THE southern border needs to be closed, we have way to many people coming from mexico ,and the other poor nations south of our border, we cannot sustain this type of growth unless we want to change thye whole make up of AMERICA, we have been invaded by third world nations, enough is enough, mexico has way more than their fair share of the pie, and the more we let in the more we keep the status quo in mexico t,he men of mexico might want to stay and improve things down there like economics and living standards ,it will never change as long as we take all of their problems.
Here, here.
Are you employed outside your home cleaning toilets?
There is a very practical couple of reasons why we simply cannot throw open our borders and simply let anyone from Mexico who wants to move here to do so:
I do not dispute your statement that the United States could support a theoretical population of one billion. If everyone were as industrious as, say, the Mormon pioneers who settled what were then barren deserets on the west side of the Rocky Mountains, the figure could even be theoretically higher.
The point, however, is we simply will not get there with no immigration controls in place.
Even the so-called Golden Era of immigration from circa 1840-1920 had restrictions. You've no doubt heard of Ellis Island which turned back those with communicable diseases, those with no visible means to support themselves or those with criminal histories or even criminal profiles deemed likely to lead to a life of dependence or criminality. Other ports of entry operated in similar fashion.
Admittedly, the bars to entry (particularly in the peak period of this era) were rather low, but aspiring immigrants were required to clear them nevertheless. I have examples in my own heritage which both contrast to and confirm your Polish community example.
My wife's family came from Italy, settled in Italian neighborhoods and spoke little English. But they insisted that their children be educated in English and that the language of adopted country be spoken as much as possible in the home. The town I live in has an AMS Club (Americanization Mutual Society) whose original purpose was to do exactly as the name implies for Italian immigrants. My father-in-law is still active in the Sons of Italy, though he understands little of the language and speaks even less and he is one generation removed from Italy. Can you say the same of even an appreciable minority of illegal immigrants from Mexico who have been here three generations or more? And were not even asking that they forget Spanish as my wife's familty was told to forget Italian.
My own family background could also give you a lesson or two in what happens when you have an idiotic immigration policy. By blood, I am more native American than white. While I do not count myself as a victim and know many native Americans (full-blooded) who do not either, much of the good of our culture was destroyed by immigrants who neither cared no took the time to appreciate our culture-- some aspects of which we're glad is gone (abandoning the elderly, slavery, paganism, etc.) and some of which should have been saved (community cooperation, variety of natural seeds, appreciation for a slower pace of life and the arts which flow therefrom). The percentage of military veterans is higher among the Native American population than any other.
Patriotism is a necessary ingredient to preserve a civilization and patriotism requires time and nuturing to take root. Immigration does not need to be halted, but it needs to be slowed to a pace which allows this necessary nuturing to take place.
I hope they deport the scumbags. Put them in hard labor for a few years for breaking our laws.
Meanwhile you see fit to ignore the concept of the rule of law. Some conservative you are.
This only partially true. Until 1880 only disease was criteria for turning an immigrant back from Ellis Island. In 1917 all an immigrant had to do was read a 40 word literacy test IN THEIR OWN LANGUAGE. Please tell me how the government had the resources and ability to do criminal background checks...even as late as 1940 if that helps. Maybe they had a REALLY big filing cabinet. Since the inspectors were inspecting about 40-50 immigrants and hour I'm sure that left lots of time for criminal background checks. Think about it.
Absolutely. The children of Mexican immigrants are learning English and American history in our schools.
Patriotism is a necessary ingredient to preserve a civilization and patriotism requires time and nuturing to take root.
Patriotism takes only one generation and often times less. My great grand parents got off the boat without the ability to speak English, but their son and my grandfather, only 17, lied about his age to join the navy and fight in the Pacific in WW2. My uncles fought and died in Korea and Vietnam and my brother fought in the Gulf War. Your family did the same. Today illegal immigrants are fighting in Iraq
komo news | Illegal Immigrant GI Granted U.S. Citizenship
And some have given their children .
Spc. Zeferino E. Colunga, 20, of Bellville, Texas, died on Aug. 6 at Homburg University Hospital in Germany. Colunga was initially evacuated to the 28th Combat Support Hospital in Iraq on Aug. 4. He was then evacuated to Landstuhl Army Regional Medical Center and later to Homburg hospital for further evaluation. He remained at Homburg until his death. His death was unrelated to the recent cases of pneumonia in Southwest Asia. Colunga was assigned to 4th Squadron, 2nd Armored Calvary Regiment, Fort Polk, La.
Colunga's father was deported back to Mexico four months after his death for being an illegal alien.
There are over 30,000 non-citizens in our military today. Some have been granted citizenship for their service posthumously.
I believe the vast majority of illegals come to America to find a better life for their families. I believe the current quota limitations on immigration leave these people little choice but to cross the border without permission. Too many heartless, and selfish Paleos equate that act with treason, terrorism, and identity theft. Their hyperbole leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth.
I know your trying to get a rise out of me but I just feel loathing about how powerless you must feel.
Bingo! Another member of the Cheap Labor Lobby!
And undoubtedly one of those whose political philosophy is "Privatize profits; socialize costs".
Better and better -- a semi-Canadian cheese-head with no personal knowledge of life along the Mexican border.
Some people are unwilling to work and others are functionally incapable of responsible behavior. Sometime it's a little a both. Socrates said "know thyself," and although you may not yet know what to do with the information I have given you, I do hope this leads you on the path to self awareness.
You suck
Your wrong.
No.
You amaze me. I said nothing of the sort. I decry all Government handouts. It is you and the rest of the Paleos who keep whining about the illegals getting all you gubmint handouts. At heart you are a fool.
Now listen to the sound of me laughing at you.
LOL
I'm also pretty damned good looking.
I don't believe I did. The polls about illegal immigration are not worth the trouble to read. I can see the truth with my own eyes and I can discern the truth through critical analysis of the things I know and read.
Politicians are in the business of doing what their constituency wants them to do. If they fail to understand and do what the people want, then the people vote them out of office. Both parties are for increasing immigration and some form of amnesty. Therefore both parties think their position will win more votes than it will lose.
Polls tell us that people are against violence and sex on TV yet the ratings show that not to be the case.
When you ask someone a question in a poll, they will often give an answer that they think is appropriate. The fact is the opposition to illegal immigration is a mile wide and an inch deep. The American people will say something should be done about illegal immigration...but they ain't taking the time out of their busy schedules to write or phone a congressman.
Most Americans don't know the current levels of immigration, so if they say it should be lower what does that mean? Most Americans don't even think about the issue. ask a guy for a lot of money and he will say $100. Tell him you will give him a lot of money and he will be thinking $1000. Say a million or a billion or a trillion and their eyes glaze over. It is too difficult for most people to work with numbers like that.
Thanx for the links. I read that one already. I'm not going to refute McDonald point for point. If you have one or two points and you want me to explain why they are wrong I will do so, but please don't post a link to an article you obviously didn't spend anytime thinking about
Any critical thinker would read the first sentence and decide the author had an agenda and few fact to back the agenda up.
Some of the most violent criminals at large today are illegal aliens.
This is true but so is...
Some of the most violent criminals at large today are native born Americans.
Some of the most violent criminals at large today are white.
Some of the most violent criminals at large today are black.
Some of the most violent criminals at large today are people with birthdays in the last 3 months of the year.
Some of the most violent criminals at large today are people who drive Ford trucks .
Some of the most violent criminals at large today are people who hate Mexicans.
I just hope there are no violent criminals posting right fringe xenophobia at FR.
So I've heard, but I don't swing that way Jeff...
OK, there was that one time...
But I really needed the money.
I'm Kidding!!!!
I didn't need the money.
Nine out of the last 12 posts are MINE...That has got to be some kind of record. What do I win?
What does your screename meam? It's fun to say your FReeper name out lousd. Once-Ler. It's all cool.
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