Thread: IA: Immigrants should have licenses, panel says

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs. ... 1001/ENT04

Immigrants should have licenses, panel says
But plan has little chance of action at Statehouse

By JONATHAN ROOS
REGISTER STAFF WRITER


January 27, 2007
23 Comments



Iowa legislators are being asked to consider driver's licenses for immigrants who can't get licensed under current law because they entered the country illegally.

The request comes from a task force created last month by then-Gov. Tom Vilsack to study public safety issues concerning the lack of a "comprehensive identification system" for undocumented people living and working in the state.

Recommendations of the New Iowans Policy Task Force include examining the use of a passport or a "matricula consular card" as a valid form of identification and as a means of obtaining a driver's license. Consular identification cards are issued by Mexico to its citizens in the United States.

"People on the committee concluded that public safety issues do exist of sufficient concern as a result of undocumented Iowans driving without insurance, without knowledge of the rules of the road," said Sen. Joe Bolkcom, an Iowa City Democrat who served on the task force.

The driver's license recommendation faces an uphill battle in the Legislature, which has snubbed similar proposals before.

Sen. Jeff Danielson, vice chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, said the panel is unlikely to take up the proposal because it's one piece of larger immigration issues confronting the federal government.

"I don't think we're obligated at the state level to solve those issues with driver's licenses for illegal immigrants," said Danielson, D-Cedar Falls.

It will be costly for Iowa to comply with the federal Real ID Act, which sets standards for driver's licenses across the country, "and I don't want to complicate it any more," he added.

Bolkcom acknowledged that the Real ID Act could be a barrier to the licensing proposal. The task force calls for reconsideration of the new federal law.

Bolkcom and other supporters of licensing alternatives for undocumented immigrants say it is a matter of public safety to have people licensed to drive and in a position to get car insurance.

"We know they're going to drive. There isn't enough public transportation in this state to keep them from driving," said task force member Eddie Mauro of Des Moines, a leader of A Mid-Iowa Organizing Strategy, or AMOS. "This population is here. They're going to go to work. They're going to go to church. They're going to take their children to school."

Critics contend that granting driving privileges to undocumented people poses a security risk and rewards the illegal act of entering the United States without permission.

Members of the New Iowans Policy Task Force had previously called for more study of the issue before deciding during a final meeting conducted by conference call to offer a licensing recommendation.


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Comments are being left after the article too.

Hey, I have a better idea. In the event that illegal aliens are caught causing accidents or injury and are unlicensed and/or uninsured, we just put them in their vehicles, weld the doors shut and put them on a car carrier back to wherever they came from?

Seriously, though, why not enact a law allowing the state to confiscate and sell the cars of unlicensed and uninsured illegal aliens to create a fund to compensate their victims? There should also be some mandatory jail time followed by mandatory deportation. That would solve the problem almost immediately.

Critics contend that granting driving privileges to undocumented people poses a security risk and rewards the illegal act of entering the United States without permission.

The critics are right!! What is wrong with the state governments?!!! You don't reward people for breaking the Law.!!

By the way, WHO'S GOING TO GIVE THESE ILLEGALS INSURANCE?!! I'm starting to think I'm in the land of OZ and this is JUST A BAD DREAM!!!!!!

WAKE UP AMERICA AND TAKE BACK YOUR COUNTRY!!

Iowa legislators are being asked to consider driver's licenses for immigrants who can't get licensed under current law because they entered the country illegally.

This is crazy, how are they going to tell who these people really are to begin with. Its like, oh well as long as they have a name no matter whose it is, we should give them a license, does it matter they are going to drop their car insurance the following month!!NO!!! WHY? BECAUSE THEY JUST DO NOT CARE ABOUT ANY LAW of course it will keep them from being arrested for the moment if the get pulled over because they will have ID, but write them a ticket and see how fast they ignore the law to pay it or apear in court. WHY? BECAUSE THEY JUST DO NOT CARE ABOUT ANY LAW and in the end it is all our fault because we have laws they just don't like or can't abide. It never ends and makes us Racists, right!!

Does anyone else see the error in that headline... or are we, too, getting used to it?

Come'on people!

LEGAL immigrants SHOULD have drivers licenses if they want them. ILLEGAL immigrants should NOT.

I know you guys probably didn't mean it that way... but if we DO seem like we're protesting all immigrants, even if by accident, then we're doomed.

Originally Posted by edstate

Does anyone else see the error in that headline... or are we, too, getting used to it?

Come'on people!

LEGAL immigrants SHOULD have drivers licenses if they want them. ILLEGAL immigrants should NOT.

I know you guys probably didn't mean it that way... but if we DO seem like we're protesting all immigrants, even if by accident, then we're doomed.

Yeah I noticed it right away, but then I also noticed the first paragraph.

Iowa legislators are being asked to consider driver's licenses for immigrants who can't get licensed under current law because they entered the country illegally.

So no foul. But yes! we need to be watching....

Why would Iowa want to give drivers licenses to illegals? Hmmmm...

Iowa produces more corn than any state in the U.S.

Corn = ethenol.

Ethenol = big $$$$ for the farmers growing it.

The availability of cheap, illegal labor means even bigger $$$$ for these farmers.

Nuff said?

Most of the farmers in Nebraska don't have a lot of hired help and I would think it'd be that way in Iowa too. They do the work themselves using expensive tractors and farm equipment. Some may have a hired hand or two at the most. I have never seen an illegal working in the corn fields here unless of course you count the times they've been caught or seen stealing sweet corn. You know stealing corn is one of the jobs that American citizens don't want to do.