Thread: WA: Lawmakers consider immigration, licenses issue

Lawmakers consider immigration, licenses issue

Lawmakers in Washington state - one of two states in the country that still let illegal immigrants obtain driver's licenses - are moving forward with bills that would ask for proof of legal residency.

Seattle Times
February 4, 2011
MANUEL VALDES
OLYMPIA, Wash.

Lawmakers in Washington state - one of two states in the country that still let illegal immigrants obtain driver's licenses - are moving forward with bills that will ask for proof of legal residency.

Over half a dozen bills have been introduced in the current session to attempt changes to driver's license requirements.

Lawmakers held a hearing on one of the bills Thursday - the first time that has happened in years.

The unprecedented traction has sparked an illegal immigration debate in Olympia - hitting a high point Thursday when a committee hearing was adjourned early after protesters began yelling that "brown" people were being targeted.

Supporters of the stricter immigration rules applauded the lawmakers' efforts, saying that closing access to licenses would stop a magnet for illegal immigrants to move to Washington. Others say Washington's rules allow for identity fraud and other public safety concerns.

"Not all illegals come here just to work and look for a better life. Some come here to destroy us and our way of life. Driver's licenses give legitimacy," said Bob West, a man from Yakima, Wash., who testified at the Senate Transportation Committee.

Immigrant advocates, meanwhile, say that cutting access to driver's licenses will raise insurance costs because illegal immigrants will be unable to obtain insurance, creating a larger pool of uninsured drivers.

They also said that the estimated cost of the bill - about $1.5 million in the next two-year budget - is too expensive in a year that the state faces a deficit.

"This bill causes terror and a climate of fear in our immigrant members across the state. These are hardworking, tax paying Washington residents who are working the fields every day to support one of our largest industries in the state and many other industries our state desperately needs," said Pramila Jayapal, executive director of OneAmerica. "This bill, we think, represents a misguided attempt to address issues related to our broken immigration system."

Jayapal said lawmakers should focus on keeping roads safe.

The bill heard Thursday was sponsored by Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island. It would require people applying for a driver's license to show proof of Washington residency and a valid Social Security number. If the person does not have a Social Security number, proof of legal residency is required. Under the proposal, the Department of Licensing also is required to verify that a person's address and Social Security numbers are valid.

"In order to work in this country you have to have a Social Security number, and we're just asking for the Social Security number," Haugen said at the hearing. "I would hope people aren't working without Social Security numbers. Because if you are, you're part of the underground network, which really creates a lot of problem for a lot of workers."

Another bill introduced this year establishes a two-tier system in which illegal immigrants would be able to get a driver's license but couldn't use it as identification. A similar system has been put in place in Utah.

New Mexico is the only other state in the country where driver's licenses are available to illegal immigrants. The Associated Press reported last summer that three states - Washington, New Mexico and Utah - were seeing surges in the number of immigrants seeking IDs, a trend experts attributed to crackdowns on illegal immigration in Arizona and elsewhere.

According to a 2010 Pew Hispanic Center study, estimates of the illegal immigrant population in Washington state range from 140,000 to 325,000. The state's population is 6.7 million residents.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/l ... cation=rss

Added to Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/article-6058--0-0.html

No Driver's Licenses for Washington's Illegal Immigrants? Bad Idea

By Keegan Hamilton, Thu., Jan. 27 2011 @ 11:11AM Comments (16)

​In the past month, six Washington legislators have introduced six different bills intended to prevent undocumented immigrants from obtaining a state driver's license or identity card. Pramila Jayapal, director of the advocacy group OneAmerica, helps explain why all six ideas are short-sighted and ill-conceived.

Washington, as noted in today's thoroughly researched Seattle Times piece on the driver's-license hysteria, is just the third remaining state (the others are New Mexico and Utah) that allows non-citizens to legally drive. Until the post-9/11 wave of xenophobia, virtually every other state did business the same way, and for one very, very good reason: Immigrants are going to drive whether they are licensed or not.

No matter how tall we build the border fence or how many guns-drawn, papers-please raids ICE conducts, thousands of people will still enter the country without visas. There is simply too much demand for labor--too much money to be made by both business owners and workers--to keep people from coming.

"You can do this enforcement and look like you're tough, but you're ignoring the real problem," says Jayapal. "All these things are fundamentally against the reality, which is we need workers. You don't see laid off bank workers or whatever, people affected by the economy, running to take farm-worker jobs."

And, like most Americans, these people need cars to get around. Ever been to Yakima? There's no light rail to the orchard. There's no bus that goes to the grocery store. If immigrants have to drive, why not have them take a test to prove they know the rules of the road? Why not enable them to get car insurance, so that both citizens and non-citizens are covered when there's an accident?

The sponsors of the new bills (SB 5006, HB 1577, SB 5335, SB 5338, SB 5333, and SB 5407will say that Washington has become a destination for illegal immigrants because of its licensing policy. This is bunk. Yes, the Department of Licensing says they have issued 5.1 million licenses for a state with a total population of about 6.6 million. But the DOL now requires anyone who wants a license to prove their identity and prove they currently reside in Washington state.

Others will argue that a license entitles an illegal immigrant to all kinds of taxpayer-funded handouts. This is also bunk. As Jayapal points out, those immigrants buy the same car tabs that fund state programs, and they pay the same sales taxes and the same taxes on other consumer goods as everyone else.

"People make it seem like they're the cause of the collapse of whole economy," Jayapal says, "but they're a growing percentage of the workforce and they're all paying taxes, whether it's consumption tax, sales tax, or car tax. We're trying to draw more focus to helping the legislature remember that immigrants are huge part of the economy, whether it's picking fruit or the taxes they pay every day."

Jayapal says the politicians who are clamoring to sponsor the driver's-license bills are just "grandstanding," and ignoring the need for a real, practical solution to the immigration problem. If that argument sounds familiar, it's because Barack Obama said just about the exact same thing back in 2008 when he was Senator.

"We have to solve the overall problem and this driver's-license issue is a distraction," Obama said. "We have to have a comprehensive reform package and if we are doing what we need to do to control the borders, if we are doing what we need to do in cracking down on employers who are hiring undocumented workers and undermining U.S. workers then we shouldn't have a problem with driver's licenses because we will have legal workers here in this country as opposed to illegal ones."

So yeah, about that comprehensive reform package . . .

http://blogs.seattleweekly.com

First Jayapal assumes the only use of a driver's liscense is to drive... yet its a form of ID stating who you are and your eligibility. That right off the bat is flawed as how do we know an illegal alien is who they say they are? Wheres the documen.... oops yah. Then ontop of that a DL is also used as identity to qualify for many different social programs, credit cards, bank accounts, so on and so on. Yet it really in these cases doesn't prove these illegals are who they say they are. Infact one illegal could basically have 10 different names and DL's as no real documents are required.

Second he goes into the fact that illegals pay sales tax on all items legals do... sure. But what about employment taxes, property taxes, and so on? Ohh sure *some* of that they pay but by being illegal and often working under the table including multiple IDs they don't pay fair taxes but considerably less as they have little to zero reported income.

Third no mention of the billions Citizen taxpayers pay in social benefits these illegals use up. Surely its not all covered by that same sales tax which may cover roads, police, fire departments, and other basic city services (non social). That is where all the real taxes come in that they don't pay.

Fourth no mention on how these DL's are just used to vote. Do we really want illegals voting in our country? Hell, I already have problems allowing idiots who have no clue on politics, governments, or who even work vote.

If a DL was ONLY about being able to drive AND required the driver have insurance then maybe more would be for it.... but as its also a form of ID for basically any other service.... its just no good.

Immigrant advocates, meanwhile, say that cutting access to driver's licenses will raise insurance costs because illegal immigrants will be unable to obtain insurance, creating a larger pool of uninsured drivers.

What a joke! I was hit three times by illegals when I lived in Arizona. Not one of them had insurance. Illegals don't care about being insured. They just get out and run when they get in an accident. In Arizona there are so many illegals in the state they are harbored by them. They are harbored by legal Hispanics too.

Originally Posted by jean

................."The sponsors of the new bills (SB 5006, HB 1577, SB 5335, SB 5338, SB 5333, and SB 5407will say that Washington has become a destination for illegal immigrants because of its licensing policy. This is bunk. Yes, the Department of Licensing says they have issued 5.1 million licenses for a state with a total population of about 6.6 million. But the DOL now requires anyone who wants a license to prove their identity and prove they currently reside in Washington state.

Jayapal says the politicians who are clamoring to sponsor the driver's-license bills are just "grandstanding,........................."

http://blogs.seattleweekly.com

Bunk? Grandstanding?

Your nose is growing Mr. Jayapal. Concerned Legislators presenting bills to stop this invasion are not "grandstanding" nor are their legislative arguments "bunk". This state is being inundated with illegals. Read something besides your own garbage, or at least your own local newspaper!

http://www.topix.com/forum/news/immigra ... R8A1B7F25D

Track all Washington Legislation here

http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-1181244.html

What those people in Washington wants’ to do is the same as allowing escaped convicted felons to break out of prisons and award them for doing so by giving each of them drivers licenses so they can kill half of American citizens on State highways. Later they will receive pats on their backs and may even be able to sue an American before being deported.