The mainstream news media in Tennessee continues the sheep following ways of ignoring facts and just repeating the mantra of the illegal alien panderers.



Not the way to solve it

Proposed bills to deal with illegal immigration deserved to be killed


March 23, 2007

Bills in the Tennessee Legislature to require driver's license tests to be given only in English and to make state troopers enforce immigration laws were feel-good measures that deserved to be killed, as they were in a House subcommittee this week. This country has some legitimate and serious issues regarding immigration, but these bills wouldn't have helped those efforts.

Turning those bills into law would have sent the wrong message out from Tennessee to the rest of the country and beyond. This should be a state that welcomes law-abiding citizens from other countries. The United States is still the land of opportunity and dreams. It should not be a country that unfairly limits those dreams.

Under the proposed bill a driver's license test could not be given in any language other than English. That would have hurt those among us from not just Mexico but any country whose residents choose to live in this country. And state troopers have enough to do without having to be immigration officers, too.

The bills were designed not to lead to meaningful laws but to make those frustrated by illegal immigration to think something worthwhile was being done. Its broad brush would have covered thousands of people coming to Tennessee from other countries looking for work and a place to raise their families, people who deserve to be distinguished from illegal aliens who sometimes do create problems in the communities in which they settle.

Sevier County has become home to hundreds of people who are not Americans. These are people who work in our restaurants and tourist businesses and are productive, contributing members of this community. To create a law that makes it difficult if not impossible for them to get a driver's license in an attempt to control illegals just makes us look bad. It lumps everybody from another country who comes to Tennessee into the same category. We shouldn't be about that.

As more and more Hispanics - many of them illegal - come to Tennessee and other states in search of work, there are problems created that must be addressed. The United States cannot absorb so many illegal residents without affecting schools, health care, transportation and law enforcement. Our borders are leaky. There are issues of proper ID. Many Hispanics driving in this country lack both a license and insurance. We have to get a handle on those things. But we shouldn't do it with a bill that is unfair, unreasonable and unnecessary.

Let's tackle the problems of illegal immigration with laws and measures that truly will make a difference.