Thread: Nebraska - Ricketts unmoved on immigrant licenses

Posted: Saturday, May 2, 2015 2:00 pm

By JOE DUGGAN World-Herald News Service

LINCOLN — Nebraska's governor won't reveal his veto plans if state lawmakers pass legislation granting driver's licenses to young immigrants who came to the country illegally through no fault of their own.

But Gov. Pete Ricketts has not softened on illegal immigration despite rapidly shifting politics surrounding the driver's license bill. In recent weeks, the state's leading business groups have called for the bill's passage, as has Jean Stothert, the Republican mayor of Omaha.

"As a matter of principle, I don't believe in giving benefits to people who came here illegally," the Republican governor said Friday in an interview with The World-Herald.

Nebraska is the only state in the nation to deny driver's licenses to a category of young immigrants brought to the country illegally as children. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, was started in 2012 with an executive order by the president.

Legislative Bill 623 would reverse a directive by former Gov. Dave Heineman to deny licenses to DACA immigrants.

The bill has yet to be debated in the Nebraska Legislature, but it already has the support of a veto-proof majority of 31 senators, a number that includes many Republicans, according to Sen. Jeremy Nordquist of Omaha, who introduced the measure. Supporters also say they're confident they could thwart an effort to kill the legislation with a filibuster, which requires 33 votes.

Two weeks ago, the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce threw support behind the measure. Ricketts, a former corporate executive who strongly advocates for pro-business public policy, said he respects their position, but he doesn't share it.

"I don't expect to agree with anybody 100 percent of the time, even my friends," he said. "Their perspectives have not changed mine."

The governor said Friday the DACA program may give the immigrants legal presence, but not lawful status. Nebraska law prohibits public benefits from going to people who lack lawful status, he added.

It was the same legal position offered by state attorneys earlier in the week to defend the policy in court. A trial in a lawsuit brought by three DACA immigrants was held in Lancaster County District Court, although a decision is not expected for weeks or months.

Attorneys for the immigrants have challenged Nebraska's policy as unconstitutional because the state has singled out the DACA recipients for driver's license denial.

Ricketts also argued Friday that because the DACA program came about through an executive order, it could just as easily end when the next administration takes office in 2017.

The governor criticized President Barack Obama for "creating a humanitarian crisis" with the DACA program. Ricketts was referring to last summer's flood of unaccompanied minor immigrants who came to the United States from Mexico and Central America.

Based on interviews of the immigrants by border patrol agents, more than 90 percent said they thought U.S. immigration law would allow children to stay.

Advocates for the minor immigrants said many were fleeing extreme levels of violence in their home countries.

Supporters of the DACA immigrants make the point that they were brought here as children, they grew up in the state and were educated in Nebraska schools. They speak English, they can navigate two cultures and they hold Social Security numbers and employment documents while in the DACA program.

"I certainly understand the sympathetic circumstances these folks are in," Ricketts said.

At the same time, the governor said he's sympathetic to those who believe benefits paid for by Nebraska taxpayers should be reserved for legal residents.

"I've traveled the state in the last year and a half, probably more so than any other Nebraskan," he said. "And I can tell you, by and large, Nebraskans don't believe in giving benefits to those who came here illegally."

A World-Herald poll in December found that 57 percent of Nebraskans opposed a more recent executive order by the president that removed the threat of deportation for 5 million illegal immigrants. That deferred action program is currently on hold, pending a court challenge.

But in the same poll, a clear majority of Nebraskans — 63 percent — said they would support allowing illegal immigrants to stay in this country and obtain citizenship if they passed certain tests, including a criminal background check.

http://www.starherald.com/news/regio...416f2c6c0.html

Does anyone know what Ricketts position is on DACA, aliens illegally here, open borders. expansion of work visas, etc. Has he been asked? If a bush favorite likely not good for us, but it seems he is standing his ground, that cannot be said for many in D.C. Bothers me though that he's willing to spend so much of his money to win (but lost) a national election (Senate). That is very hard to understand.

Originally Posted by Jean

Posted: Saturday, May 2, 2015 2:00 pm

By JOE DUGGAN World-Herald News Service

LINCOLN — Nebraska's governor won't reveal his veto plans if state lawmakers pass legislation granting driver's licenses to young immigrants who came to the country illegally through no fault of their own.

But Gov. Pete Ricketts has not softened on illegal immigration despite rapidly shifting politics surrounding the driver's license bill. In recent weeks, the state's leading business groups have called for the bill's passage, as has Jean Stothert, the Republican mayor of Omaha.

"As a matter of principle, I don't believe in giving benefits to people who came here illegally," the Republican governor said Friday in an interview with The World-Herald.

Nebraska is the only state in the nation to deny driver's licenses to a category of young immigrants brought to the country illegally as children. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, was started in 2012 with an executive order by the president.

Legislative Bill 623 would reverse a directive by former Gov. Dave Heineman to deny licenses to DACA immigrants.

The bill has yet to be debated in the Nebraska Legislature, but it already has the support of a veto-proof majority of 31 senators, a number that includes many Republicans, according to Sen. Jeremy Nordquist of Omaha, who introduced the measure. Supporters also say they're confident they could thwart an effort to kill the legislation with a filibuster, which requires 33 votes.

Two weeks ago, the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce threw support behind the measure. Ricketts, a former corporate executive who strongly advocates for pro-business public policy, said he respects their position, but he doesn't share it.

"I don't expect to agree with anybody 100 percent of the time, even my friends," he said. "Their perspectives have not changed mine."

The governor said Friday the DACA program may give the immigrants legal presence, but not lawful status. Nebraska law prohibits public benefits from going to people who lack lawful status, he added.

It was the same legal position offered by state attorneys earlier in the week to defend the policy in court. A trial in a lawsuit brought by three DACA immigrants was held in Lancaster County District Court, although a decision is not expected for weeks or months.

Attorneys for the immigrants have challenged Nebraska's policy as unconstitutional because the state has singled out the DACA recipients for driver's license denial.

Ricketts also argued Friday that because the DACA program came about through an executive order, it could just as easily end when the next administration takes office in 2017.

The governor criticized President Barack Obama for "creating a humanitarian crisis" with the DACA program. Ricketts was referring to last summer's flood of unaccompanied minor immigrants who came to the United States from Mexico and Central America.

Based on interviews of the immigrants by border patrol agents, more than 90 percent said they thought U.S. immigration law would allow children to stay.

Advocates for the minor immigrants said many were fleeing extreme levels of violence in their home countries.

Supporters of the DACA immigrants make the point that they were brought here as children, they grew up in the state and were educated in Nebraska schools. They speak English, they can navigate two cultures and they hold Social Security numbers and employment documents while in the DACA program.

"I certainly understand the sympathetic circumstances these folks are in," Ricketts said.

At the same time, the governor said he's sympathetic to those who believe benefits paid for by Nebraska taxpayers should be reserved for legal residents.

"I've traveled the state in the last year and a half, probably more so than any other Nebraskan," he said. "And I can tell you, by and large, Nebraskans don't believe in giving benefits to those who came here illegally."

A World-Herald poll in December found that 57 percent of Nebraskans opposed a more recent executive order by the president that removed the threat of deportation for 5 million illegal immigrants. That deferred action program is currently on hold, pending a court challenge.

But in the same poll, a clear majority of Nebraskans — 63 percent — said they would support allowing illegal immigrants to stay in this country and obtain citizenship if they passed certain tests, including a criminal background check.

http://www.starherald.com/news/regio...416f2c6c0.html

WELL THEY SHOULD NOT GET ANY THING AT ALL WAKE THE HELL GOV & STATE WHY IT NOT ONLY THE MEXICAN IT ALL OF THE OTHER COUNTRY AS WELL . THIS IS LL OBAMA DOING STAND UP TO HIM.I FOR ONE SAY NO DR LIC AT ALL

Originally Posted by kevinssdad

Does anyone know what Ricketts position is on DACA, aliens illegally here, open borders. expansion of work visas, etc. Has he been asked? If a bush favorite likely not good for us, but it seems he is standing his ground, that cannot be said for many in D.C. Bothers me though that he's willing to spend so much of his money to win (but lost) a national election (Senate). That is very hard to understand.

But look at the messages from the people in Nebraska on these polls: 57% oppose Obama Amnesty and Deferred Action in a poll yet 63% in the same poll support amnesty for illegal aliens including a pathway to citizenship if they pass certain tests. WHAT??!! How do you do a criminal background check on an illegal alien? YOU CAN'T. All you know is they broke multiple laws in our country to be an illegal alien in the first place, which is all the criminal background check you need to deport them.

NEBRASKANS and all other Americans need to wake up and get off this duplicity so our members of Congress understand where we the people stand on immigration. When you are asked a poll question like do you support amnesty for illegal aliens and answer no, then answer the next poll question that tries to get you to overturn that with a different answer based on putting illegal aliens through tests sends a confused message like you're an idiot willing to be manipulated. We're not interested in giving them "tests" or paying for "tests", and most importantly, there are no "tests" that can ferret out differences between one illegal alien or another, because from the viewpoint of immigration, they are all the same, there are no differences, they all broke US immigration law and need to be deported, whether they are murderers or rapists, drug runners and dealers, or someone undercutting American workers, signing up for welfare, having kids on Medicaid, sending their kids to our schools and signing up for free school lunch, running some business that competes with our entrepreneurs and businesses, or living in subsidized housing .... it doesn't matter.

They are all the same in the eyes of immigration law, where the only issue that matters is did they have permission to enter before they did or did they leave when they were supposed to.

That's it. That is all that matters, not whether they have a criminal background for other crimes, not whether they learn English, not whether they claim they were brought here by their parents, not whether they have relatives who broke our laws before them or even if they came here legally, etc., etc., blah blah blah blah. They aren't supposed to be here and that's all that matters, and all that they need to do is leave our country and not return or be deported and removed by the government.

Americans must be clear on this, not duplicitous.

Judy-All I can say and think of is that our young have been brainwashed. They think pot is the greatest thing ever and that illegals are wonderful people. Yep I need to get off Facebook but it does open your eyes as to how many of our young adults think. Seems like Facebook is the go to place for atheists, immorality, illegal lovers, gay marriage whiners, propaganda and pot lovers. I find the liberals to be the worst offenders of spreading the hate and lies while saying conservatives hate everyone.

Originally Posted by Mayday

Judy-All I can say and think of is that our young have been brainwashed. They think pot is the greatest thing ever and that illegals are wonderful people. Yep I need to get off Facebook but it does open your eyes as to how many of our young adults think. Seems like Facebook is the go to place for atheists, immorality, illegal lovers, gay marriage whiners, propaganda and pot lovers. I find the liberals to be the worst offenders of spreading the hate and lies while saying conservatives hate everyone.

Sometimes I wonder if a great deal of those postings on Facebook aren't organized by various organizations behind certain causes and thus don't actually reflect the real attitudes of a lot of our young people. While I am Pro-Choice to protect the lives, liberty and happiness of girls and women, so their lives don't become secondary or disregarded because they got pregnant when they didn't want to; support Gay Marriage for the simple reason that I believe gay couples are gay by birth, this is who they are, and are entitled to the same rights as any couple who want to marry; and support ending the War on Drugs and replacing it with a legal, regulated, taxed under the FairTax system with some of the taxes used to better educate on the risks of using and provide free rehab on demand without stigma for those who want or need it, because it's failed in every way possible and in a free nation of free people, people should have the right to do things without government involvement that others don't think are good for them for one reason or another, I am boycotting Facebook.

I believe Facebook has reduced Americans into revealing too much about their private and personal lives on a medium that is not protected, nor should it be for that matter, as such is a dangerous tool of exposing people perhaps in their worst or weakest moments from which no good comes at the end of the day and of course, because the entire Facebook organization is pro-illegal alien and their owners and directors dump money into 501 C 3's who want to open our borders and grant amnesty and privileges to illegal aliens.

Good decent people have lost their jobs because of something they posted I'm sure in a weak worst moment on Facebook. People get on Facebook and blab like they might in the privacy of their own family room, forgetting that Facebook is not your family and it's not your living room, it's a global business enterprise designed solely to make money off of its members publishing details about their lives and the advertisers that feed on those who do.

Also, although I am a fiscal conservative, I'm part of the original Republican group that is social liberal, fiscal conservative. While I truly understand social conservatives concerns with abortion, same-sex marriage and drug use, I also see through a different view, the greater harm of the government being involved in such matters. I don't oppose private citizens carrying out missions to reduce abortion through information or other types of private influence, I totally oppose all laws that involve the government in restricting this basic right of girls and women. I don't oppose those who criticize gay marriage, but again it's not a proper role of government to pick and choose what 2 adults can marry and live their lives with the same legal and financial protections as other couples, because having these same rights is inherent to their lives, the same as they are to heterosexual couples.

And I have absolutely no problem with those who want to actively engage in discouraging drug use, but here are the facts about it. In 1913 before the first anti-drug law was passed, 2% of the US population was found to be addicted to drugs of one type of another. Today, after all the harm, killings, murders, expense, civil rights violations, incarcerations, and invasions by law enforcement, the addiction rate in the US is still just 2%. So there is some characteristic in human nature that craves these drugs to seek a better feeling. I don't understand it, but I know it's there.

So is our role to criminalize, torture, kill, incarcerate, and ruin their lives? Is that the proper role of a government in a free nation of free people? I think not. Can we legalize and regulate a domestic only trade, no imports or exports, with businesses owned and operated by US citizens only, to reduce the impacts of drug use by controlling quality, quantity, age limits and requiring warnings and other information the same as we do on all other drugs? Sure. Can we use part of the FairTax proceeds only drug users pay to better educate and provide free rehab for those who want or need it? Sure. To me that's the very best we can do on this matter, then we can and should stop worrying about it and turn our attentions to other more important and productive concerns.