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."
Sure, be glad to. How about ..
one issue illegal immigrant hating troglodytes
the knuckle dragging PaleoCons
I guess the "conservatives" at FR accept the welfare state and the tax burden...
Let me guess. You work in public relations, right. Or for the DNC?
You would have loved slavery.
Amusingly enough Hispanics are frequent victims of this crime since it's easier for an illegal alien Hispanic to imitate a legal one. And to stael an SS# from within the "community"
Ah, the truth comes out, doesn't it? Guess what, I don't like subsidizing your cheap labor. I think that taxpayers should start class-action suits against employers of illegals, to attempt to recoup thier losses.
You didn't answer the principle question, and I'm sure you won't:
WHAT walls was he talking about?
I asked you to elaborate. You posted a few insults I justifiably offered, but no lies. I have not "accused others of making statements they didn't make." I did attack them personally for being assh*les. It is not my fault they are assh*les. What more can I say?
Let me guess. You work in public relations, right. Or for the DNC?
I worked for my state Republican party for almost 10 years, and I loved the job. The Republican party is the gateway to the redemption of America, but I was offered more money in a non-political position and I decided my family deserved more money. The decision tore me apart, but politics would never pay as much as the private sector...and even though Dubya was offering amnesty to illegal immigrants...there was no way in hell that it could effect my job at the Republican Party of Wisconsin or my new job so I wasn't soiling my underwear about some guy named Pablo. I'm guessing you lost your job to an uneducated non-English 3rd world worker. Tough break dummy.
That is because you didn't ask the question...your questions change everytime I nuke your argument. You are a sad misinformed little boy. You are unable to read a 4 sentence paragraph in plain English and understand it's meaning.
WHAT walls was he talking about?
Pathetic.
I got a speeding ticket last year. According to this article this woman has been living in the US for 11 years without incident. Illegals are not a bunch of drug dealers and mothers who pimp their children. They are people who don't want to get raped by the local Mexican sheriff, or beaten by local gangs. What a sad day for America when our citizens think that freedom is common place.
Or maybe you think America and freedom just equals a job.
It is too late to apologize!
How I wish that the CAlifornia DMV would start doing that...ILLEGAL ALIENS should all be sent home They drive down wages, the use up public services, they inc rease the crfime rates and the generally ruin any place the go to...Send em back to Mexico or where ever they come from...Let them build up their own country no tear ours down
It is entirely possible that you can convince a bunch of leech lawyers to fight your cause but, if you could convince a majority of voters that you knew what you were talking about we would not be having this conversation. You are the minority. Both the Republican party and the 'rat party have human emotions and sensibilities. You will have to join your skin head brethren in the Constitution Party for acceptance.
Obviously, you have me confused with someone else. I asked ONE question: What did Reagan mean in his farewell speech when he said "..and if the city has to have walls?" That's my only question; I'd like an answer.
I see that you were actually employed by a state Republican Party. I have done quite a bit of volunteer work for my State party, and am familiar with the types of college "majors" that they look for when they hire. Perhaps I should phrase my question in multiple-choice?
I'm middle class. Lee Iococca can go screw himself, but I do not hate Jose the bartender. Maybe I got my priorities mixed up. Or I don't!
Oh, that was nice! Since you worked for a State party, you should be familiar with a little thing called "polls." The majority of the American public does NOT like illegal immigration. As with many issues, the will of the public is being ignored.
Of course, you, like all liberals (including Republican liberals) try to shout down your detractors by making them seem less than human. Don't you care about the people from other third-world countries who are on waiting lists trying to come here legally? I have a great deal more sympathy for them than for those who cheat the system.
This is also the biggest contributor to voter fraud. Tax ID numbers issued by the IRS to ALL ILLEGALS who apply are being used to open bank accounts also. I truely hope that crackdowns take place. Think of all the money being held and transfered out of the country by these illegals, wether terrorists or not. Credit Cards and even loans are issued to buy homes here in Kalifornia. But the real reason demonrats want this to stay is to vote in their "illegal" based elections.
I have done quite a bit of volunteer work for my State party, and am familiar with the types of college "majors" that they look for when they hire.
Wow. I must thank you. I expected to insult you and here you are doing it yourself. Seriously, I resent you calling yourself a Republican. I'd prefer if you said you were a "Conservative." They are not the same thing.
Wow, you are completely clueless. Do you truely believe both the 'rat party and the Republican party would take a stand against over 50% of the voters. That is beyond ignorance. I suppose Clinton signed welfare reform because the American people were against it but Clinton really wanted it...And Dubya so wanted to expand medical benifits that he twisted Pat Toomey arms until he gave in. I have nothing more to say to you. You are beyond help. Live in your conspiracy world if you wish but please don't try to pass yourself off as rational.
Of course the "walls" were the point of the quote. The balance of it would stand alone and make YOUR point; however, the fact that he specifically said it makes mine.
I said I "volunteered" for the Republican party, as you well know. I am familiar with the types of people that they HIRE. You fit the profile quite well.
You will get your wish that conservatives don't call themselves Republicans; and your type will have caused it. Reagan was a conservative; a true believer, and great thinker, who dragged the Republicans (kicking and screaming) to power. It's sickening to see his legacy being taken over by a bunch of moderate Democrats.
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