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."
Yeah, I've heard that one before. However, you're the one swallowing. Can I call you Monica?
By the way, I think you belong back in Oz. Reality really doesn't suit you at all.
That critical analysis went out the door on Sep 11, 2001.
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
Little ole me, why I just couldn't comprehend the incredible insights of such a critical thinker like you. You haven't made one comment that wasn't drooling with condescension. They have been filled with your unwarranted opinion of yourself, your uninformed opinions, or derogatory comments about others on this thread. Adios
Thank you for a hearty laugh, and I'm not laughing AT you.
Once-Ler is a character from the Dr. Seuss story "The Lorax." It is a hysterical anti-business enviro-wacko story and the Once-Ler cuts down all the trees and destroys the lakes and wildlife only to find he has no resources to continue his business. I picked the name because my daughter loves Dr Seuss and it fits in with the MSM image of "Evil Republicans."
I'm the black sheep of my union 'rat family. When I worked for the Republican Party I had to tell them I was a piano player in a whore house or risk alienation. I also haven't told them I'm a Chicago Bears fan. I've been told Republicans are evil all my life, and I think Dubya is a good and God fearing man. Don't let my comments about PaleoCons fool you. PaleoCons are not Republicans...they vote for Buchanan and Keyes and even 'rats if the Republican supports abortion, gun restriction, free trade, separation of church and state, integration, flame retardant crosses, R rated films, or the Pope.
I am against abortion, but I don't list abortion doctors on a internet hit list. I'm for the 2nd amendment, but I don't support taxpayer subsidized bazookas. I'm not an extremist for any cause except Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Good to meet you.
Bears suck. Jets rule. That's all I have to say aboutnn that. I bidm you a good evening.
Well at least I haven't lied about my opinion of you.
They have been filled with your unwarranted opinion of yourself, your uninformed opinions, or derogatory comments about others on this thread. Adios
You gonna take your ball and go home? It's about time. You're losing the argument, BIG TIME.
You Suck
He sucks. But the Bears swallow.
When I worked for the Republican Party I had to tell (my family) I was a piano player in a whore house or risk alienation.
It doesn't matter why illegal aliens are coming to America. They are still violating our immigration laws by not coming here through legal channels, or by overstaying their visas. Every foreigner who wants to come to America has the same choice to make: do it legally or do it illegally. Nobody is forced to violate our immigration laws. It is always a personal decision to do so.
I'm glad we agree.
I had 2 ticket to a Jets game last year. I drove into to the city and you know how difficult it is to find a parking space. I parked my car in one of those big parking lots, but I left the tickets on the front dashboard...big mistake. I came out to the car the next day and some asshole smashed my front window...
and left 2 more tickets to the game.
weird!
I don't disagree with anything you wrote usadave. They are violating out immigration laws. It is against the law, and it is a personal decision. I will only add I sympathise with their decision, I think our immigration quotas are too low, and I welcome them to America.
I thought you would learn from experience.
You say you want others to partake of freedom in this country. Oh great critical thinker, if you appreciate freedom so much, please show me an example in the history of democracy where more people hasn't led to more laws and less freedom.
Ad hominem attacks will receive no further replies. BTW, why stop at one billion, why not two, three or infinity? I guess there's no such thing as physical carrying capacity. How stupid of me. There, one less insult you need to make.
Well, that explains it. You are a liberal (pro-abortion, pro-gun control, ACLU-type); who assumes that all Conservatives are racist, evangelical, anti-Catholics; but you like your OWN slave labor and the stock market. Got it. The Republican party needs its own excommunication process to rid itself of your type.
No doubt about that among Paleo's, but I really didn't expect that kind of honesty. It's nice to see that people like you are finally being honest about the Mexicans. Go on with your bad self camouflage paintball master.
Republicans believe in self reliance. I am a Republican and I welcome Latino competition for unskilled jobs. It lowers the cost of production and makes the products I purchase cheaper. I will not lose my job to an uneducated worker from Mexico Canada or anywhere. I feel contempt for any American who is born with the advantages of America and feels they cannot compete with people who can't even speak English. Pathetic.
No doubt about that among Paleo's, but I really didn't expect that kind of honesty. It's nice to see that people like you are finally being honest about the Mexicans. Go on with your bad self camouflage paintball master.
Republicans believe in self reliance. I am a Republican and I welcome Latino competition for unskilled jobs. It lowers the cost of production and makes the products I purchase cheaper. I will not lose my job to an uneducated worker from Mexico Canada or anywhere. I feel contempt for any American who is born with the advantages of America and feels they cannot compete with people who can't even speak English. Pathetic.
I said I was against abortion but not for killing abortion doctors. I said I was for the 2nd Amendment but not pro-bazooka. You can't read, and you can't think. I didn't say Conservatives are racist...I'm a Conservative...I said PaleoCons are racist...I was talking about people like you.
The Republican party needs its own excommunication process to rid itself of your type.
You're not a Republican. Dubya is a Republican, McCain is a Republican, Guillini is a Republican. You are a imperial wizzard/klegal/garand...whatever you call yourself.
Pardon me. I should have written "your critical analysis went out the door on Sep 11, 2001".
I, personally, have no fear from unskilled or the highest skilled competition. My life expectancy is but a few more decades.
RINOs, the likes of which you seem to espouse, will hasten the end of this democratic republic, just like Athens and Rome IMHO.
You ignored my comments on physical carrying capacity with respect to what population this country should be able to bear, the argument of the social cost of open borders, the argument that more people cause more laws and less freedom, the security threat from open borders, etc.
The best you can offer is such critical analysis to others as "you suck", or you're a Paleocon.
I'm a conservative with strong libertarian sympathies. I'm also a white devil. My wife isn't and wasn't born in this country.
No, this is what you ACTUALLY said:
PaleoCons are not Republicans...they vote for Buchanan and Keyes and even 'rats if the Republican supports abortion, gun restriction, free trade, separation of church and state, integration, flame retardant crosses, R rated films, or the Pope
You are wrong on facts, and can't debate without falsely labeling your enemies...like a three-year-old (or come to think of it, a liberal). Your pettiness, and name-calling casts a very bad light on this forum...and probably has those at DU cheering. Keep it up....really.
So is Pataki. Which of the afformentioned pols believes in limited government? With pubbies of that type in New York, that's why I am registered Conservative.
I'll agree with that statement if there is a reasonable filtering process to separate the wheat from the chaff. I don't know how much you've seen of illegal immigration and illegal immigrants, but I've seen plenty. Mrs. Vigilanteman, you see, is from southern California and I lived there awhile myself. The sad truth of the matter is that for every immigrant such as my friend Richardo, there are at least 10 which have nothing more in mind than exploiting the system. Ricardo was born in the U.S., his family came here illegally in the late 1950's when there was still a trickle, not a flood. They worked, they earned citizenship, they encouraged their children to become Americanized and they set the example where possible. Ricardo understands, but doesn't speak much Spanish. His mother became the manager of a department store where my wife worked and spoke with only a hint of an accent.
While I agree with your statement that legal immigration should be easier (and I think of people like Ricardo's family), it cannot be done without cracking down on illegal immigratation. I've spent half my adult life living in Japan and know more than a few legal immigrants who feel like chumps because they took the time and trouble to come here legally only to find so many people like you and like our government, make little or no effort to distinguish between the legal and illegal variety.
Unlike some of the paleos, I also feel that military service (demonstrated loyalty to the U.S.) should be a path to legal citizenship but for the immediate family-- spouse and minor children-- not for multi-generations of shirt-tail relatives. In today's world of relatively cheap air travel (and cheaper travel to Mexico), family reunification should not be used as a catch-all reason to jump the politically-protected to the front of the line. Our idiotic immigration policy needs to pick and choose among would-be immigrants who will contribute to the fabric of this nation and not just those who will milk it. A sensible debate is needed somewhere between the point of "zero" and "open borders." Switzerland (with a 20% foreign workforce) and Singapore (with a more stringent policy) both have multi-ethnic societies and a sensible immigration policy. We do not and, by failing to do so, risk further Balkanization.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.