Keeping Immigrants at Home

Kerry Howley | February 18, 2005

Two years ago, New York's DMV started denying license renewals to anyone without a social security card. Immigrants' rights groups complained that the Department of Motor Vehicles should worry about, say, motor vehicles, rather than the enforcement of immigration law, and sued. The New York Times reports:

Among those who sued the state are a 60-year-old licensed asbestos remover who worked in the World Trade Center cleanup, a teenage refugee from Albania, and the Irish father of an American-born infant who needs to be driven to medical treatment for her seizures.

Yesterday, a judge ordered a temporary halt to the denials. The AP report has state officials claiming the denials are necessary for "traffic safety," which is an interesting argument, since it implies that undocumented immigrants who pass a driving test are inherently worse at operating motor vehicles than the rest of the population.

Comments

The Lonewacko Blog|2.19.05 @ 6:54PM|#

The DMV does a bit more than just deal with motor vehicles. It also hands out ID cards. The 9/11 hijackers had driver's licenses from at least: FL, NC, VA, and CA. There might have been an NJ or NY in there as well.

The AP report appears to have been changed, since it now reads "State officials said it was in the interest of homeland security and traffic safety to take away the licenses." Given the facts in the first paragraph I wrote, I'm sure most people will be able to see what they mean by the homeland security bit.

As for those "immigrant's rights groups", you'll find that most if not all of them are far-left groups, and that many are racially-oriented.

Biased NYTimes coverage of this story is discussed here.

BTW, what does Reason think about that new day laborer center they're building across the street from your headquarters?

|2.20.05 @ 3:06PM|#

Of COURSE people who immigrate should be issued all necessary documents - Soc. Sec. card, driver's license, etc. Boy, the INS does pretty shoddy work sometimes!
Oh, wait, you mean ILLEGAL immigrants? Sorry, different story. When they get pulled over, and it's discovered they don't have a license because they're NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE, why aren't they deported post haste?
Real cute how "Immigrants' rights groups" conveniently ignore the difference between legal and illegal immigrants. These activists, shamefully enough, are saying they want unlimited numbers of foreigners to sneak into the country illegally. As an incentive, they propose to give each one of these illegal aliens a free driver's license as a reward for breaking the law.
WTF?!?!
Who can even listen to this kind of senseless gibberish with a straight face?
I honestly don't understand.