Editorial: More Faults Exposed In Immigrant Licenses
By Albuquerque Journal Editorial Board on Sun, Aug 14, 2011

The more that is known about the state’s practice of providing easy access to New Mexico driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, the worse it looks.

In mid-July, the Motor Vehicle Division sent letters to a sampling of 10,000 of the 85,000 foreign nationals who have obtained New Mexico driver’s licenses since 2003. They were asked to make an appointment and report to an office in Albuquerque with papers verifying residency in the state.

This was done after the discovery, accompanied by several arrests, that New Mexico had become a mecca for illegal immigrants of many nationalities across the country who were paying good money for a quick trip to Albuquerque and the false documents that allowed them to get a driver’s license here. With a driver’s license come many privileges, including the ability to board an airplane.

After immigrant rights groups complained that illegal immigrants who lived south of Border Patrol checkpoints like the one outside of Truth or Consequences would be afraid to come north with their papers, an office was opened in Las Cruces. Even with that accommodation, here are the results so far:

♦ Just 1,449 appointments had been scheduled (only 36 in Las Cruces), and 828 had taken place by last week.

♦ 402 people provided acceptable documents and their licenses were certified.

♦ 80 people provided documents that appeared suspicious. The papers were sent to the state Tax Fraud Investigations Division for further examination.

So what happened to the other 8,551 letters for which there has been no response?

We do know about 2,812 of them: They were, in Elvis Presley’s words, returned to sender, address unknown.

Marcela Diaz of the immigrant rights group Somos Un Pueblo Unido says, “I don’t think you can draw any conclusions from this at all.â€