The California Assembly voted to repeal a law Monday allowing undocumented immigrants to get driver’s licenses, setting the stage for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (news - web sites) to fulfill a key campaign pledge just two weeks after taking office.
Facing widespread public opposition and a threatened March ballot initiative to kill the law, the Assembly voted 64-9 to overturn what it passed only three months ago. The Senate took similar action on Nov. 24 with a 33-0 vote.
The law, which had been set to go into effect Jan. 1, would have let an estimated 2 million illegal immigrant motorists apply for driver’s licenses with taxpayer identification numbers instead of Social Security (news - web sites) numbers.
The fact that they passed this stoopid law in the first place… is utterly mindblowing.
Passed in September and signed by former Gov. Gray Davis (news - web sites), the law aimed to end a 10-year ban on driver’s licenses for California’s undocumented immigrants, most from Mexico and Central America.
So the ban was actually created during Pete Wilson’s disastrous early 90’s immigrant bashing.
Et Tu, Brute? Read the line about the 2 million ILLEGAL immigrants. Why the hell do we have to give everything to folks who are here illegally? We can’t even get healthcare, decent food and housing for our own citizens!
Are you just trying to push my buttons today or do you really not know that a driver’s license opens the pandora’s box of benefits, credit apps, etc etc… ? C’mon, man, use yer noggin.
Jesus, even the crazy republican pages I get off Google try to make an argument, albeit a wrong one.
Can you name a benefit where just a driver’s license is sufficient for an illegal immigrant to qualify, or a benefit where a driver’s license is the only qualifying item unavailable to an illegal immigrant?
You are overdoing your leftness, man! We agree on a lot of things but I’m sure all the right wing nuts are enjoying our little argument.
Now then, my position is simply this: If you are in this country illegally you have no right to a driver’s license or anything but a free ride back to your country of origin. We have enough people with enough problems already.
Well, I guess what’s mind-boggling about it is that these people are illegal immigrants. It’s like the fact that you’re supposed to report income from illegal activities on your taxes.
Not saying it’s the right thing to do, but given the law, if someone who’s an illegal immigrant comes into a government office and declares such, doesn’t the law state that we’re supposed to send them back to their country of legal residence, rather than offering them a driver’s license?
Oh right, because we do such an excellent job of pretending to care about closing the borders. Yeah, sending them back with a wink and a nod - don’t forget to return for strawberry season! - is a lot better.
Look, if someone actually favored completely sealing the borders I’d be in favor of it; I’d also (probably) favor a reasonable work visa program with completely controlled immigration and return dates.
The problem is that there’s no way in hell either is going to happen, because the GOP’s low-wage using corporate backers profit the most from the current scheme - use them and dump them. Until the root cause can be fixed, harm mitigation is the least evil approach. They’re not going anywhere because those with power don’t want them to, so stuff like driver’s licenses is a no-brainer. It costs nothing, and has real benefits - they’ll get car insurance, and actually sorta learn to drive.
It costs nothing, and has real benefits - they’ll get car insurance
holy crap… I bet the number that would get car insurance is under 1%.
Midnight Son, we finally agree on something.
I can’t even believe anyone can argue FOR this insanity.
Jason, you should look up the word ILLEGAL. It’s pretty important in this little discussion. Illegal immigrants should have no rights in this country. It’s idiocy like this that played a role in 9/11.
I have no problem with legal immigration. But if you’re in this country illegally, you should have none of the rights of U.S. citizens and that certainly includes the RIGHT TO LEGALLY DRIVE.
I’m glad I read your views on this. Explains a lot.
Well then, if they’re illegal, the people that hire them knowingly should face large fines, and be forced to hire legal workers, right?
Except – oh wait, see, here, up in Northern California, the INS has basically agreed not to go after the illegal immigrants, because the farmers and vineyard owners would cry bloody murder, because then they’d have to spend a lot more money to hire, gasp, union farm workers, and food costs will rise.
“Damn it, it won’t help anything to deny them driver’s licenses, but it’d make me feel better about my scapegoating!”
As I said, feel free to seal the borders, but the exploitive framework we have is just evil.
Bonus question: can you honestly tell me that if you were in Mexico, and you didn’t get into the legal quota of 75,000 (winning the lottery, practically), you wouldn’t cross the border?
I’ve been a citizen of the USA for over 5 years and the fucking DMV won’t give me my license because of a hyphen in my middle name that Social Security has on file. Why the hell should illegals get them?
There is a reasonable argument, you’re just not willing to acknowledge it. Like everyone has said, illegal immigrants should be denied driver’s licenses because they’re in the country illegally. The state shouldn’t condone their presence. If you’re selling pot, you can’t go to the police when someone rips off your stash, or fails to pay for goods delivered. Because the underlying activity is illegal, and the state won’t help you carry out illegal activity. You may say “Well, shit, the state is hardly going after pot sellers anyway, selling and possessing pot is almost de facto legal in California, so why not allow them to make enforceable contracts and file complaints if they’re robbed? Isn’t that just better for everybody, because robbers and welchers get brought to justice? Isn’t it wrong to sort of wink at the fact that people are growing pot but then refuse to help them when times get tough?”
No. There’s a huge difference between the state failing to enforce certain laws, and the state actively condoning illegal activity. The former is generally acceptable–states have limited resources and can’t afford to fully enforce all the laws all the time, so they concentrate on the ones that prevent the most harm. But they don’t ever help you break the law (or they shouldn’t; if your argument is “Well, the state helps agricultural farmers break the law somehow by using illegal immigrants,” (a) I don’t think they do, and (b) even if they did, the solution is to stop helping the ag farmers, not to try and “equalize” things by condoning other illegal activity as well so that everyone gets the same amount of assisted illegality). You apparently don’t see that at all. I think it’s blindingly obvious and generally accepted, but I understand that maybe if you were King things would be done differently around here. So I guess we can just agree to disagree, but it’s false for you to say that nobody is putting forth any logical arguments in this thread. They are, it’s just not an argument that you’re prepared to recognize, for whatever reason.
