Thread: Illegals taking advantage of Tennessee's lax system

http://www.timesnews.net/editorialArtic ... ID=3597670

Monday, February 06, 2006

A couple of years ago in this space, we warned against a bill then pending before the Tennessee legislature that sought to allow illegal immigrants to obtain state driver's certificates.

Sponsors argued at the time that illegals were going to drive regardless, and that it was better to allow them to take a driver's test and receive a certificate of driving so they at least would be familiar with the rules of the road.

We argued the bill would encourage illegal immigration, fraud and other abuses. And that is exactly what has happened.

According to recent media reports, federal officials have uncovered sophisticated black-market shuttles carrying South American and Central American illegals from as far away as New Jersey to Tennessee licensing centers where they have obtained driving licenses and driving certificates on the strength of fake claims of residency.

There's no way to know how many illegals have abused the system in this way, but it's a matter of record that the state of Tennessee has issued more than 51,000 driving certificates since the state legislature approved them in 2004.

Supporters make much of the fact that the distinctive purple driving certificate can be readily distinguished from a regular license and is not supposed to be used as official proof of identification.

But then, neither is a Social Security card. Indeed, the card carries a statement that it is not to be used in that way and yet, one's Social Security card is routinely requested, and accepted, for just such a purpose all the time.

The ostensible purpose of providing some sort of driver's license to illegal immigrants in Tennessee was to ensure these drivers knew the rules of the road.

But surely this is an extraordinarily high price to pay for a new certificate that essentially provides illegals with what amounts to a national identification card.

And why reward someone for breaking the law? Illegal immigrants should be prosecuted or at the least, returned to their native country - not handed a driving certificate.

Gov. Phil Bredesen proposed the change, saying it was necessary because of the threat of terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But clearly the most effective way to deter the free movement of unlicensed, foreign individuals is to arrest them, not grant them some level of government sanction.

Do we really intend that someone could walk into a driver's license issuing station where there usually is a trooper on duty to say that he's broken federal law and would the trooper please hand him a driving certificate?

No matter what the document is called, the practical effect is the same. Why should Tennessee want to extend a government benefit to people who are not legally present in the state? Why grant official permission to people who break the law, thus rewarding that behavior?

Advocates stress that the driving certificates can't be used in Tennessee to purchase a firearm, rent a car, board an airplane or as official identification. But similarly distinctive, color-coded driver's licenses are supposed to prohibit those who are underage from obtaining alcohol. Routine busts demonstrate the chronic failure of that long-standing law.

Is there any particular reason to believe compliance with the new certificate of driving will be significantly better?

The best - indeed, the only - way to really get a handle on the movement of illegals in the United States is not to be found in a confusing multiplicity of state-by-state driving laws, but by a uniform, national standard.

Some states are extraordinarily lax about awarding driver's licenses while others are very strict.

In such an environment, illegals will naturally gravitate toward those jurisdictions where standards are the least stringent. In an age of terrorism, this is not merely an economic concern, but a national security imperative.

Let the states issue licenses to their bona fide legal residents. As for illegals, that's more properly a matter for the federal government.

A distinctive, federal driver's license, good in all 50 states, would bring uniformity and an overdue sense of security to what is now an anxious and chaotic landscape.

and coming up from behind we have Tennessee running neck to neck with North Carolnia........