On Tuesday a new piece of legislation was approved in the Illinois House of Representatives that will help illegal immigrants get to drive with a legal temporary driver's license.
Such immigrants sometimes drive while in America even though they don't have a driver's license, and they do it out of necessity for work purposes. And that can prove costly to those citizens who do live here and have to pay the uninsured motorist insurance for coverage in accidents involving bad illegal drivers and others.
But the state of Illinois has a solution to that problem according to Reuters: offer them the incentive of getting a legal license to drive on American roads, and then they will have to study and take a test proving they know the road rules expected of them before they can get it.
That's a great idea. This legislation encourages that accountability because they have to learn America's road rules in order to pass the test, making it safer for other drivers. And that should be the key focus when drivers' licenses are awarded.
And this legislation would also create a driver's license revenue stream for the state if enacted, which they are not currently receiving. And it would enable those who have entered the country illegally (but for safety, work, or other legitimate opportunities) to get around to where they need to go in an honest manner. What could be wrong with that? It's a win-win.
It is desperately needed, as there is only three other states currently offering such hope and common sense legislation at present: Washington State, New Mexico (which both offer permanent drivers' licenses to immigrants who are here illegally, which might not be the right move), and Utah, which offers driving permits. And that is just far too few states trying to find a solution to this problem.
The House vote was not in the majority (65 to 46), proving that many still do not agree with this type of legislation, possibly because it provides a form of ID that would help usher in voting by illegals in the country in the next presidential election.
And that opens up a whole other can of worms that really needs to be addressed some other way, since American citizens do have the right to expect those not in the country legally be restrained from impacting their national presidential election, of course.
The Illinois House legislation states emphatically that the illegals would be given the same "temporary visitor's driver's license" as those in the country legally, so the licenses would be visually different from current legal drivers' licenses, with a purple background instead. And the license for them would contain the words "not valid for identification" written on it.
Regarding the identification issue, the Department of Driver Services offices in each state is unequipped with manpower, resources or law enforcement capabilities to do thorough background searches on illegal immigrants.
And that background search needs to be done by trained immigration personnel anyway, who can weed out the criminal element attempting to gain entry versus those legitimately trying to reconnect with family or seek better opportunities or safety. So the use of a temporary or permanent driver's license to immigrants here illegally needs to always be regulated and always state "not valid for identification" purposes.
(Driver's License testing photo credit: Georgia Department of Driver Services)
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Comments: 6
From the article:"Such immigrants sometimes drive while in America even though they don't have a driver's license, and they do it out of necessity for work purposes. And that can prove costly to those citizens who do live here and have to pay the uninsured motorist insurance for coverage in accidents involving bad illegal drivers and others."
Maybe I wouldn't be extremely glad about it, but in a choice between door number- one giving illegals driver's licenses, and door number two- paying for an accident they caused (while thy languish in jail for the offense and then after serving their time are deported) -- I choose door number two about 97 per cent of the time.
Washington State, New Mexico, Nd Illinois... Got it. Licenses from those states will carry the stigma of being worthless for anything but moving us closer and closer to validating and legalizing the invalid and illegal.
But no doubt the effort to increase the percentage of drivers who have valid drivers licenses will cause outrage among those who tend to freak out about the presence of immigrants in general and undocumented immigrants in particular.
Oregon went overboard by requiring drivers to provide birth certificates to obtain or renew driver's licenses. A few AMERICAN citizens living there lost their licenses and their jobs because they could not produce birth certificates. Instead of protecting Oregonians, all that law did was to disenfranchise some Americans while doing NOTHING to curb accidents by drivers without licenses.
Yes, there are Americans that cannot provide birth certificates, some because their births were never registered, and some because the states/counties lost the records. And some naturalized citizens born in other countries cannot get birth certificates for numerous reasons.
Fortunately, I live in Washington where one only needs to prove capability and responsibility to drive, as it should be.
Do I believe illegals belong here? ABSOLUTELY NOT!!! However, it is not my responsibility nor my State's responsibility to do what my Federal government cannot do or will not do.
Needless to say, I support any law that makes our roads safer, even if it means licensing people that are here illegally.