Friday, March 30, 2007

Driving while undocumented

A couple of days ago the Moline Dispatch published an article about the bill just passed by the Illinois House to allow issuing driver’s “certificates” to illegal immigrants. There have been more than 126 comments posted online many of them similar to the following:
Relax--if they are here illegally they will not sign up for any driving certificate because the feds will be knocking on their door to send them back home. Also if they are here illegally they probably can't afford or won't spend the money on insurance. Results--illegals will still be on the road without insurance. If they cause an accident good luck. They will be back to their old country before anything can be done about it and we will be left to pay for the damage.

If they are illegal why are they still here?

Do you really think these illegals are going to be getting insurance? Get real. Hopefully, the fingerprinting and address verification will be the best part of this. When the raids come looking for them they will be easier to find.

ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND? They are illegals. They need to be rounded up and shipped back to where they came from. This is just one more piece of proof that our so called lawmakers are insane. Rename Springfield as Stupidity Inc.

Let's read between the lines..."and get to work without being stopped and thrown into jail." This is another attempt to limit a powerful law enforcement tool that led to easier deportation. Shame on our spineless politicians.

The people who wrote these comments are obviously not involved in any way with law enforcement or our courts because illegal immigrants are arrested every day for driving without a driver’s license and insurance. None of them are being deported as a result of coming to the attention of the authorities in this way. Most local authorities do not consider it their jobs to enforce immigration laws and besides if they did call ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) nothing would happen. ICE does not have the resources to come get every illegal immigrant in every local jail in the country, and currently seems to be focusing on deporting immigrants with multiple felonies and staging raids on companies who systematically and knowingly hire large numbers of illegal immigrants.

It is not surprising to me that people without a clue will post comments online, but it is a little surprising that none of the thousands of people who are in a position to know posted comments injecting a little reality into the discussion.

Ten million immigrants are not going to be rounded up and deported whether or not Illinois issues them driver’s certificates. If we are going to have illegal immigrants driving it would be better to have them apply for documentation, pass a test and obtain insurance than not. Putting pressure on Illinois lawmakers to prevent this bill from passing will not deport a single illegal immigrant. It will just make driving less safe.

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