Boy, is this wildly optimistic! The INS has ordered the deportation of 314,000 illegal aliens it cannot find. The INS has been described by those who know it best as the most incompetent of all federal agencies. Yesterday, I was told the INS has a standing order with police in my state that if a carload of illegal aliens is stopped and they have not violated any law other than immigration law, LET THEM GO!
How do you like that, America?
Now for the BARF ALERT:
Guest column: Tennessee driver's license law promotes safety
The new Tennessee law that allows people without Social Security numbers to apply for driver's licenses is good public policy. Since the law passed last spring, it has made our state a much safer place in which to live.
Guest columnist David Lubell is community outreach coordinator for Latino Memphis Connection, a nonprofit social service agency.
The arrests at the Summer Avenue driver's license testing center this month, and the tragic death of state license examiner Katherine Smith that followed, have shocked the Memphis community. Looking for answers, many people have latched onto the idea that the new law is somehow to blame.
ALTHOUGH IT is tempting to embrace this conclusion, we do so at our peril. Repealing the license law, or tightening it so that most immigrants would no longer qualify under it, would do nothing to prevent terrorism. Instead, it would cause grave public safety problems for our city and state.
More than 20,000 individuals in Tennessee have obtained licenses as a direct result of the new law. Before it took effect, most of these people were driving without licenses.
They did not know our state and federal traffic laws. Many may not have known that in this country, a driver must stop when a school bus's red lights are flashing.
Before the law, none of these 20,000 motorists could obtain auto insurance. The dangers inherent in that situation are obvious.
And none was identifiable to police. Unlike their licensed counterparts, their names and photos were not in the state database. When a police officer stopped one of these individuals, the officer had no idea whether the driver had been pulled over or arrested before, or was subject to outstanding warrants.
Ever since Gov. Don Sundquist signed the driver's license law last May, a small minority of lawmakers led by state Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Brentwood) has called for its repeal. Many in this group were appalled by the idea of giving licenses to noncitizens, despite the new law's many positive implications for public safety.
This opposition at first found additional support among people who were forced to wait in excessively long lines at local driver's license testing centers. The Tennessee Department of Safety clearly did not expect the large volume of individuals without Social Security numbers who flocked to their doors soon after the law took effect.
But these lines did not last. As public discontent with them began to die down, so did the attempt to repeal the license law.
In the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Blackburn and her cohorts adjusted their arguments to play on our newest fear. They now claim the new law, by failing to require a Social Security number, made it easy for terrorists to obtain driver's licenses.
This argument also failed to persuade many people. All of the Sept. 11 terrorists, with their global support network, had Social Security numbers.
Public attitudes changed, however, when the driver's licensing scandal exploded in Memphis. The arrests of five Middle Eastern men at the Summer Avenue testing station suddenly appeared to lend credibility to the opposition's stance.
Many people who were previously ambivalent about the law began to label it too lax. After all, the suspects reportedly stated that one of the reasons they came to Tennessee for driver's licenses was that there was no Social Security requirement.
UPON CLOSER scrutiny, though, this argument loses much of its credibility. The suspects would not have been able to obtain Tennessee driver's licenses were it not for their alleged use of bribery.
The fact that they had to pay for the licenses should be evidence that the law is strict enough. Otherwise, why didn't they just obtain the licenses legally?
The suspects lacked the proper documentation: Someone without a Social Security number must show two government-issued forms of identification, one with photo, and two proofs of Tennessee residence, such as a utility or telephone bill in the person's name. For this reason, the suspects allegedly paid more than $1,000 apiece to have licenses issued to them under assumed names and identities.
The suspects came to Tennessee because they had connections to an allegedly corrupt official, not because of the state's driver's license law. It doesn't matter how strict a state's licensing requirements are; if corruption is involved, people will slip through the cracks.
Last September, 20 Middle Eastern men were arrested in 10 states - including Tennessee - and charged with obtaining driver's licenses illegally by bribing a transportation official in Pennsylvania. In Florida, 28 people were arrested last November and charged with getting licenses by bribing Department of Motor Vehicles workers there. Several of the suspects were illegal immigrants.
Let's think twice before we jump to conclusions about Tennessee's driver's license law. By getting rid of the law in the hope of making our state a safer place, we would actually do just the opposite.
The INS should get trained by the IRS. The IRS certainly knows how to go after people.