Eliot Spitzer makes it easier for immigrants to drive legally.
New York Governor Eliot Spitzer is making it easier for immigrants to drive legally. This is a sound and sensible solution that will keep the roadways safe and allow them to live their lives. The great majority of people who come to this country come here to work hard and to play by our rules. In order for them to do so, it requires good relations between the police and the local authorities and the immigrant communities. The problem with requiring local authorities to report immigration violations is that it creates in increase in other crimes because of the fear of deportation should immigrants come forward to the police with information about crimes.
Under the Real ID Act, passed by the Republican Congress, all states will have to have special forms of identification in order to be valid at the federal level. However, as of 2007, no states comply with the terms of the act. In many cases, the states simply don't have the money or the technology to comply. The danger of Spitzer's approach is that people will not be allowed on to planes with just their drivers' licenses. But the Real ID laws are likely to change, given that no states are complying with it right now.
Opponents of what Spitzer has done claim that this is a first step towards getting people to vote. But that is simply not true -- nobody is required to have a drivers' license to vote, and there are adequate safeguards in the first place against voter fraud. The bottom line is that the Real ID Act is an unfunded mandate that the government is not willing to bear the cost of. It is simply a crass attempt by the government and the Bush administration to create a police state where they can monitor everyone's movements and potentially deprive people of the right to fly just because George Bush considers them to be terrorists.
The fact of the matter is that George Bush considers you a terrorist if you try to pay off your student loans. George Bush thinks peace activists are terrorists. And George Bush thinks you're a terrorist if you happen to be a Muslim and your name is similar enough to one of the 9/11 hijackers. Therefore, why should George Bush be trusted to monitor who can get on and off planes? The danger that an out of control federal government can monitor our movements is much greater than any danger from illegal immigration.
Far be it from us to interfere with illegal immigrants going about their
lives (illegally) by hampering their ability to drive to their illegal
jobs. Next you'll be asking taxpayers to directly subsidze the costs of
their insurance policies because insurance is too expensive.
So, where are you going to find the police? And the judges? And the planes?
And the prisons? And everything else that would be needed to deport
everyone?
Obamathon
