Posted on 01/29/2006 10:39:20 AM PST by NewRomeTacitus
KNOXVILLE -- Tennessee's driving certificate for illegal immigrants isn't supposed to be valid as a form of ID, but it's so popular that people are paying hundreds of dollars and traveling hundreds of miles to get one.
Tennessee has issued more than 51,000 certificates since 2004 when it became the first state in the nation to offer them -- since joined by Utah. But not every certificate has gone to someone living in Tennessee.
Two major federal arrests in recent months exposed black-market shuttles carrying South and Central American immigrants south from New Jersey and north from Georgia to state licensing centers in Knoxville, where the immigrants got certificates using fake residency papers.
A third sweep near Nashville this week revealed a conspiracy in which prosecutors say state license examiners in Murfreesboro accepted bribes from a driving school to provide illegal immigrants with driver's licenses and certificates without testing.
This comes as Tennessee's certificate system is being studied as a possible model for handling "non-conforming drivers" under Congress' recently adopted Real ID program that will set a national standard for driver's licenses by 2008.
"We have seen individuals coming to Tennessee to take advantage of the driver's certificate program because they are easy to obtain," Acting U.S. Attorney Russ Dedrick said.
Although "not valid for identification" appears in bold red letters on the face of the wallet-size certificates, Dedrick said banks accept them as legal ID and they "can easily be passed off for other types of identification documents."
Lawyer Mike Whalen, whose client Zeneida Concepcion Rivera faces up to four years in prison if convicted of bringing as many as 100 immigrants from New Jersey to Knoxville for certificates, said the government is making too much of the problem.
"Somebody went through the roof and said, 'Remember 9-11, every one had driver's licenses.'" he said. "Well, none of these Mexican immigrants are in flight school anywhere. There is a difference."
That argument carries little weight in law enforcement circles.
The certificate law "just kind of opened up a flood gate of everyone wanting to come here to get some sort of identification," said Knox County Sheriff Tim Hutchison, whose officers discovered 58 illegal immigrants used the same Knoxville address to get a certificate.
Applicants must provide two documents, such as utility bills or a lease, to show they live in Tennessee, and a Social Security number -- or a sworn affidavit if there is none. They also must pass an eye exam, a driving rules test and a road test.
"What we tried to do in Tennessee was to recognize that there are people who may be legally here but they are not completely documented," Gov. Phil Bredesen said.
Tennessee began licensing illegal immigrants, without a Social Security number requirement, in early 2001. More than 180,000 obtained licenses before post-9-11 fears set in.
The driving certificates were created in 2004 to satisfy homeland security concerns while giving illegal immigrants the right to drive with certified proficiency.
Bredesen recalled being shocked three years ago to see an ad in a Spanish-language newspaper in Georgia promoting package deals for "a certain amount of money to get on a bus and go to Tennessee to get a driver's license."
Since then, he said, "there is no question we have tightened it up a long way."
Yet the arrests of the New Jersey-based group in July and a Georgia-based group in December suggest the underground express is still rolling -- with illegal immigrants willing to pay $950 to $1,500 apiece to come to Knoxville to get a certificate.
Some say the problem isn't the law, but the law's enforcement.
Joan Friedland, an immigration policy attorney with the National Immigration Law Center in Washington, said the key is "rigorous proof of state residence."
"That is really what the issue is," she said. "And you deal with that by making sure that people actually live there."
Hutchison's officers searched the Internet to determine that immigrants were using fake residences and they spent months monitoring the suspects' movements before they were arrested.
"I would hope that the state would pick up on it sooner," the sheriff said. "But I am not sure that they are actually geared to do that."
Tracy McGill, a supervisor at a Knoxville testing center where dozens of the fake residences were used to get certificates, refused comment. "I have to get back to work," she said.
The allure of payoffs to underpaid license examiners may only increase as requirements tighten and certificates become more precious, said Melissa Savage, a policy analyst with the National Conference of State Legislatures.
One state worker in Murfreesboro allegedly accepted $20 per student in bribes for about 1,000 licenses or certificates.
The Washington-based civil liberties group Center For Democracy and Technology noted the enforcement problem in a 2004 report about issues facing a national ID card system. The center cited two dozen cases in 15 states the previous year in which thousands of licenses were fraudulently issued -- all because of bribery or lax security at Department of Motor Vehicle offices.
I must be getting schizophrenic - I'm posting to myself now. See #20 - I meant it to go to you!
I should have a bunch more info available next week, but for now there's a lot of useful relocation info *here* and *here*. As for property taxes [no WY state income tax!] there's both state and local taxes:
Wyoming is one of the 38 states that collect property taxes at both the state and local levels. As in most states, local governments collect far more. Wyoming's localities collected $411,395,000 in property taxes in fiscal year 2000, the latest year for which the Census Bureau has published state-by-state data. That amounts to $833 per capita in taxes, or if measured as a percentage of income, $31 per $1,000 of income. Wyoming's local property taxes are 22nd highest in the nation by the per capita measure and 18th highest as a percentage of income. At the state level, Wyoming collected $101,396,000 in property taxes during FY 2000, making its combined state/local property taxes $512,791,000. That brings its per capita collection to $38 (ranked 12th nationally).
I'd still have to do some calculations and see what would net us the best, financially. When we went to Texas last year, we ended up paying more in taxes because the combination of property taxes in Corpus was so high (believe it or not, we paid less in CA combining state income tax and property tax!) But other than that, I know Wyoming would be a great place to live, both demographically and with the beauty of the state.
No kidding.
Basically any scrape of paper with a name and an address, plus this "affidavit" and, presto, you are now "documented".
Hey archy,
One more advantage to living in a state with no state income tax occured to me as I was adding up some sales tax receipts to deduct them in lieu of state income tax. You guys get to deduct your sales taxes AND pay no income tax. As long as the IRS rule is extended, it's a great deal!
Yep. And BTW, if you happen to reside along the northern or northeastern corner of Wyoming: There's no sales tax in Montana....
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