Thread: 4 Western states allow illegal immigrant licenses

4 Western states allow illegal immigrant licenses
By MARK NIESSE


The Associated Press

8:20 p.m. Friday, December 18, 2009

HONOLULU — The four states that still allow illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses have escaped running afoul of a national identification law because its implementation was delayed Friday.

Hawaii, New Mexico, Washington and Utah are the only states that don't ban illegal immigrants from getting driver's licenses. In all, 46 states and territories haven't fulfilled the national ID law's mandates, which require driver's licenses to have security enhancements and be issued to people who can prove they're legally in the United States.

If Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano hadn't extended the Dec. 31 deadline for states to comply with the REAL ID law, existing driver's licenses may not have been valid forms of identification to clear airport security in noncompliant states.

"This extension is necessary because implementing REAL ID is simply not practical," said Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii. "Rather than punishing states and American citizens through onerous travel restrictions, the secretary wisely extended Congress' opportunity to do away with the failed REAL ID program."

Akaka is pushing for a separate national ID bill called PASS ID that doesn't cost states as much money and better protects privacy rights, he said. He's hoping Congress will replace REAL ID with PASS ID before the new May 10, 2011, deadline.

Many states oppose REAL ID because the federal government didn't provide much money for its implementation, and its security requirements were considered too burdensome, said Melissa Savage, who tracks REAL ID response for the National Conference of State Legislatures.

"If they're not in compliance, citizens would have driver's licenses that technically wouldn't allow them to board airplanes," she said. "The predominant feeling in the states was that REAL ID was likely to go away, so they didn't act."

Hawaii, New Mexico and Washington don't require proof that motorists are in the United States legally before giving them driver's licenses or ID cards. Utah has a two-tiered system that grants illegal immigrants permission to drive with cards that can't be used as ID.

As recently as four years ago, illegal immigrants could obtain driver's licenses in 10 states.

States like Hawaii haven't changed their driver's license laws because they had other priorities during the economic downturn, said House Majority Leader Blake Oshiro. Hawaii will reconsider ID legislation this spring.

"Those issues have taken a back seat," said Oshiro, D-Aiea-Halawa. "It just kind of fell off the radar screen. It didn't seem like a highly critical issue."

The other states didn't prevent illegal immigrants from getting driver's licenses because of concerns that it would be politically unpopular or that they wouldn't be able to get auto insurance.

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December 18, 2009 08:20 PM EST

http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/4- ... 46742.html

Is it just me or is it starting to look like Hawaii just doesn't much give a wit about who ANYBODY is or where they may have come from?

Just a thought.......

Originally Posted by azwreath

Is it just me or is it starting to look like Hawaii just doesn't much give a wit about who ANYBODY is or where they may have come from?

Just a thought.......

Or if they were even BORN THERE.

Originally Posted by Ratbstard

Originally Posted by azwreath

Is it just me or is it starting to look like Hawaii just doesn't much give a wit about who ANYBODY is or where they may have come from?

Just a thought.......

Or if they were even BORN THERE.

Exactly the point I was making

But seriously though....I'm really beginning to wonder if they need to become more up to date in how they do things.

I don't know.....it just seems like HI is still stuck operating under the informality harkening back to the days when it wasn't so populated, the populations were spread out amongst the islands and there was no need, really, for anything but a loosely run, very casual system.

Nothing wrong with that in and of itself..... there's something to be said about a less frenzied, less formal, and far less complex governance and bureacratic process. We'd probably be one hell of a lot better off than we are now in far too many respects in a return to that.

On the other side of that coin though....as populations grow, adjustments do have to be made, to some degree, in order to keep up with the increased demands and problems inherent to population growth, melding of cultures, and everything else which comes along with it.

Failing that, you're just wearing a big ol' sign inviting problems by those with less than good intent.

It strikes me that HI, in trying to retain old ways, may be actually doing itself more harm than good, that's all.

It would be nice to see them be able to find a happy medium.

I have no problem with HI either removing its statehood and restoring its kingdom.

Frankly, I wish they would. They are already bedeviled with illegal immigration issues while fighting a serious recession. If they want to go back to trading coconuts for coin--it's fine with me.

As long as we do not have to support them--go for it.

Dole owns Hawaii, and one of the largest pineapple plantations in the world. Of course they want illegals.
This is from Wikipedia:
[quote]Criticism
Dole Food Company is among three major fruit companies cited for exploiting workers in developing nations.[7] The company is named as a defendant in a wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of 73 heirs of victims of paramilitary violence in Colombia.[8]

In 2007, Nicaraguan plantation workers with Juan Dominguez as the lawyer representing them sued Dole claiming the use of illegal pesticides like Nemagon had made them sterile and over general mistreatment. The suit and two others were subsequently thrown out by California courts after it was concluded that “[c]ontrary to their sworn testimony, most of the plaintiffs never worked on Dole-affiliated banana farms and none were involved in the DBCP application processâ€

There are a couple of major errors in this article which make me wonder about how truthful the rest of Associated Press resporing is. REAL ID does not mandate the states do anything. It sets minimum requirements which any form of state isused ID (including driver's licenses) have to meet in order to be valid for Federal use. The states have the option of deciding whether or not they want their IDs qualified as Federal IDs. It does not require that driver's licenses only be issued to legal residents. A state, if it desired, could issue two forms of ID--one to legal residents and one to others. The first form would be usable as a Federal ID; the other form wouldn't.

In some states, foreign nationals can get drivers licenses. The Matricula Card is not an acceptable form of ID. Illegal aliens don't have Social Security cards, other government issued ID like a visa or a valid passport required to get a license. They were using expired visas, which had no expiration dates on them to get and renew their licenses. Now the new visas have expiration dates.

Dixie

2 of these states are next door to me how wonderful!!

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