States must revise illegal immigrant driver’s license rules

Washington, New Mexico, and Utah, are now forced to change their law on issuing drivers’ licenses to illegal immigrants, to come into compliance with a federal deadline. States must be in compliance by May with the regulations laid out in the 2005 REAL ID Act. wikipedia

This law was recommended after the 911 attacks and created a national security standard for state-issued identification cards to be used for purposes like boarding airplanes and entering federal buildings. It was originally intended as a counterterrorism tool, REAL ID has had an unintended side effect that has won support of immigration enforcement advocates, as it now require’s drivers’ licenses issued to immigrants to expire at the same time as their stay in the U.S., invalidating the licenses of immigrants who overstay their visas.

“You are making (it) very difficult for them to assimilate,” said Janice Kephart, director of national security policy at the Center for Immigration Studies said of illegal immigrants. “The inability to assimilate plus enforcement will drive a natural attrition over time.” Fox News

The director of policy and communications at the Coalition for Secure Driver’s License, Christian Gleim says the regulations, combined with more than $100 million in grants to states, have already led to “remarkable improvements” in driver’s license procedures in more than 40 states and Washington, D.C. What this means is that this Act makes it more difficult for foreign terrorists to get state issued driver’s license and IDs, it has made it much more difficult for common criminals to game the system.

Illegal immigrants “didn’t come here for a driver’s license,” said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), who nonetheless praised the move toward tighter driver’s license rules but argued it will not fix the broken immigration system. Fox News

Advocates for immigration are trying to get the REAL ID Act repealed, saying that it does nothing to stop immigration.

“The most common argument you hear against it is it’s an argument of attrition — if we make their lives miserable, the undocumented will go away,” said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, director of Voces de la Frontera. Fox News

And states such as, Maryland, Michigan, Oregon, Wisconsin and Hawaii, have repealed laws enabling illegal immigrants to acquire licenses, and experts say harder line approaches toward illegal immigration in Arizona and elsewhere has pushed illegals into states with lower thresholds for enforcement. Melissa Savage of the National Conference of State Legislatures, says some states may even start offering a “two tier” system, where illegals still can have a driver’s license…..so we cater to those who break the law, and allow them the privileges of law abiding citizens? It doesn’t make sense, does it?

Now last year in Washington State, there was a huge surge of illegals obtaining drivers’ licenses, so that had lawmakers tightening its requirements for issuing driver’s licenses in an effort to reduce the number of people who acquired them fraudulently. So now, the Democratic-controlled Senate is considering a bill that would require applicants for driver’s licenses to prove they are in the country legally. The bill is under review in the Senate Transportation Committee.

And last year in Utah, it was the only state to offer a special class of driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants, the Republican-controlled Senate is considering a bill that would eliminate the state’s driving privilege card by the end of the year. Yet in New Mexico, a House committee last week rejected, on a party-line vote, a bill that would have allowed illegal immigrants to have annually renewable driving permits, which would not serve as a form of identification.

New Mexico Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, who did not support the bill, said she wants legislation that would stop the licensing practice and cancel more than 80,000 licenses given by the state to foreign nationals.