If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or email alerts. Thanks for visiting!
Gov.Spitzer of New York finally succumbed to pressure from anti-immigration groups and abandoned his plan to issue driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. While not commenting on his decision to issue a legal document to individuals residing illegally in this country, his intentions to bring them out of the shadows cannot be faulted.
However, the argument offered by anti-immigrant groups against this policy was equally ridiculous. They charged Spitzer with the accusation that he was making would-be terrorists to get identification and thus make the country less safe. Now if I am not mistaken, all 19 hijackers involved in the 9/11 attack were in this country legally and barring couple of them who were overstaying after their visa had expired, the rest had perfect legal status. They hadn’t jumped the border from Mexico but in fact had flown in the country on valid visas. Stopping the terrorists from entering the country doesn’t require you to physically guard your borders but in fact needs you to streamline your immigration process before you hand them a visa. But sadly even prominent Presidential candidates are resorting to this blatantly misleading association that by preventing illegal immigration you are also preventing terrorism.
So honestly whatever the problem people might have with illegal immigrants, terrorism is definitely not one of them. The people have merely been falsely led to believe so. No Mexican or Latin American so far has been accused of terrorist activities. Their illegal status in the country is merely due to their method of entering the country. By denying them drivers licenses issued by the state, we are driving them underground and they’ll get fake licenses from the same place they get their fake social security cards. But that’s another issue. Let us not confuse terrorism with illegal immigration just because it appeals to people’s fear psyche. You just end up looking xenophobic which you just might be.
Update: Watch this insanely stupid ad by Republican Presidential hopeful Tom Tancredo.
by Patrix | on Wednesday, November 14th, 2007 at 1:30 pm | 
Current Affairs, Governance, Politicking, United States . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
November 14th, 2007 at 2:14 pm reply
Patrix - One more issue (Biased view since I work in auto insurance). With illegal immigrants not being given licenses, a lot of them drive without appropriate coverage or in several times no coverage at all. Having some sort of license information on them would at least allow them to get insurance protection. Very sad that the entire safety issue got buried in politics.
November 14th, 2007 at 2:23 pm reply
Ujval, True. And am glad you brought it out. The illegals are anyway freaked out to avail of any legal or official services or channels. Texas has one of the highest rate of uninsured drivers thereby jacking up the rates of those who do buy it. Making them get insurance would actually make economic sense to most.
But most people liken giving them few documents to condoning their illegal status. Although no one talks about it, I strongly feel xenophobia is at play here.
November 14th, 2007 at 4:08 pm reply
You just end up looking xenophobic which you just might be.
There is totally xenophobia at play here… very reminiscent of Nazis and Hitler and sticking to one race.
I was really hoping for the illegal immigrants’ driver’s license thing to work. But of course, it was obvious that it was going to fail!
November 14th, 2007 at 4:18 pm reply
Sampada,
But you are a legal immigrant. Sorry, couldn’t resist :)
November 14th, 2007 at 8:12 pm reply
Patrix - Most of the people who come here have some sort of state id - like most have have a Mexico issued state id. They should make a second level of id which could be like a counter-sign by an american state authority. You are right, everywhere insurance rates are up because of the illegal drivers in nearly every state. but then the people who make the policies dont make the insurance payment, right ?
November 15th, 2007 at 10:04 am reply
Patrix, that it just evil!
November 15th, 2007 at 10:10 am reply
Ujval, I guess Spitzer had proposed this measure as well i.e. to have three levels of drivers licenses, the third one being applicable for immigrants whose status is undocumented. Most people often don’t understand that the states aren’t meant to enforce any kind of immigration policy and are only expected to process requests from anyone that needs them. Asking everyone to prove their citizenship before rendering services would in fact be unconstitutional.
Sampada, heh. Mil jayega. As the compounder said to the people waiting in the doctor’s reception area, please be patients.
November 15th, 2007 at 12:26 pm reply
Tancredo says, “I am saying this because someone needed to say it”. Yes, there was a reason nobody said it before Tom, because it was f**** retarded. Despicable.
November 15th, 2007 at 12:28 pm reply
Oh, and everybody conveniently forgets that the per capita rate of crime is more among citizens than illegal immigrants, isn’t it?
November 15th, 2007 at 3:25 pm reply
Ashutosh, you seem really pissed off. But I see no reason why you shouldn’t be. You’re right about the crime stats too. Next time they use that argument, someone should just use a bar graph to show the comparison. Prolly people will understand it then.
November 15th, 2007 at 6:10 pm reply
Sorry…I WAS really pissed off. It really gets on your nerves when politicians continue to spew nonsense under the guise of responsible, self-righteous moralising. Please feel free to delete the comment.
November 16th, 2007 at 12:12 pm reply
Ashutosh, no re baba! Sorry not required. Your anger was justified.