Thread: A POSSIBLE SATURDAY VOTE! Please please help! We need it!!!

Originally Posted by HippieChick

thank you for trying April. at least emails are being flooded, so they must see how many folks are against this.

You're welcome, glad to help!

From: "McComas, Susan Delegate <Delegate.S.McComas@house.state.md.us>
To: XXXXXX
Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2009 11:37:47 -0400
Subject: RE: NO DRIVER'S LICENSES FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS!
Dear Ms. XXXXXX:

I agree with you. Please provide me with your address and phone number for my records.

Susan McComas - District 35 B

baltimoresun.com
GOP cancels support for driver's license bill
By Julie Bykowicz | julie.bykowicz@ baltsun.com

10:10 PM EDT, March 27, 2009

Republican lawmakers rescinded their support Friday of a proposal that would require Marylanders to show proof of U.S. residency when obtaining a new driver's license.

They objected to a provision added late Thursday that would permit people already licensed to renew without documenting their legal status.

Those licenses would be marked "not federally compliant" and would not be accepted at airports. Del. Ron George, an Anne Arundel County Republican who has sponsored "lawful presence" bills for years, said the amendment would create a confusing "two-tier" system.

He said employers in other states could be misled because illegal immigrants could still show Maryland drivers' licenses, creating the impression they are in the U.S. legally. The House Judiciary Committee approved the bill -- with the "grandfather clause" and other amendments by Del. Kathleen M. Dumais, a Montgomery County Democrat -- on Thursday by a vote of 19-2.

Republican delegates on the committee initially said they were happy with the plan. But Del. J.B. Jennings, who represents Baltimore and Harford counties, said he and other Republicans "didn't have a chance to digest" the 24 pages of amendments before voting. Democrats on the committee dismissed that notion.

The House launched into a full debate of the measure late Friday, with many lawmakers using the opportunity to wage a broader discussion of immigration. Republicans offered several amendments to remove what they said was amnesty for illegal immigrants who now hold licenses.

They were defeated. The Senate is also scheduled to take up "lawful presence" Monday, but that chamber's proposal makes no exception for illegal immigrants who already have a Maryland license. The issue, pushed for years by Republicans, came to the forefront this year because Maryland has less than a year left to comply with a federal security law known as Real ID, which requires that driver's license applicants prove their legal status. Maryland is one of just four states that allow undocumented immigrants to obtain a license.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/ ... 4943.story

Contact Maryland State Legislators to Support Ending Illegal-Alien Driver's Licenses, Oppose Two-Tier Licensure

Call/Email your Senator and Rep. NOW to Support SB 369, Oppose HB 387

This is a special message for NumbersUSA members in Maryland.



Dear Maryland friends:

State legislators in the House and Senate are moving fast on dueling driver’s license bills in Maryland. The House will take up a bill (HB 387) on Saturday, March 28 that would prevent illegal aliens from obtaining driver’s licenses in the future, but allow current illegal-alien license holders to keep them permanently. This, in effect, gives driver’s license amnesty to illegal aliens that have licenses now.
The bill would create a two-tier system for licenses – one for persons who must be legally present in the U.S. and one for persons who do not have to prove legal presence. An attempt will be made to amend the measure to remove the second-tier license. If this effort is not successful, HB 387 must be defeated. Gov. O'Malley had opposed two-tiered licensure, but now he says that he may accept this approach.

Please call and email your Representative NOW to ask him/her to support an amendment to remove two-tier licensure provisions for illegal aliens and to vote NO on the bill if these provisions are not removed.

On Monday, March 30, the State Senate will consider legislation (SB 369) sponsored by Sen. Norman Stone (D) that would halt Maryland's practice of giving driver's licenses to illegal aliens. A vote had originally been scheduled for March 27. Certain open-borders Senators will attempt to amend SB 369 to add a second-tier driver's licenses for illegal aliens. This effort must be defeated.

Please call and email your Senator to ask him/her to oppose an amendment to add two-tier licensure provisions to SB 369 and to vote YES on passage as long as the bill stops all illegal aliens from having driver’s licenses.

If you do not know your Representative’s or Senator's name, you can find them by using this link -- http://mdelect.net/electedofficials/ -- and typing in your address. On the subsequent page, click on the link for your Rep.’s or Senator's name to find a phone number and email address. Separate talking points are included below for your calls and emails to Reps. and Senators.



Talking Points for Representatives


* Please oppose HB 387 unless it can be amended to remove the second tier license for illegal aliens. We must stop illegal aliens from obtaining licenses in the future AND prevent current illegal-alien license holders from keeping them. Anything else short of this would be driver’s license amnesty!


* Maryland is one of four states that do not require "legal presence" in order to obtain a driver's license. Having driving privileges makes it easier for illegal aliens to keep jobs that should be reserved for unemployed Americans and legal residents during these difficult economic times. Your constituents are counting on you to help free up the jobs we need. Two-tier licensure is not a compromise!


* Maryland must remove driving privileges for illegal aliens, who are driving down wages and decreasing job opportunities for the most vulnerable of our citizens and legal residents. Help protect the people that voted you into office.



Talking Points for Senators


* Please support Senator Norman Stone's SB 396, which would end driving privileges for illegal aliens. And please oppose amendments that would add a second tier license for any illegal aliens. Do not allow illegal aliens that currently have driver’s licenses to keep them. This would be driver’s license amnesty!


* Maryland is one of four states that do not require "legal presence" in order to obtain a driver's license. Having driving privileges makes it easier for illegal aliens to keep jobs that should be reserved for unemployed Americans and legal residents during these difficult economic times. Your constituents are counting on you to help free up the jobs we need. Two-tier licensure is not a compromise!


* Maryland must remove driving privileges for illegal aliens, who are driving down wages and decreasing job opportunities for the most vulnerable of our citizens and legal residents. Help protect the people that voted you into office.



THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE!

Please oppose HB 387 unless it can be amended to remove the second tier license for illegal aliens. We must stop illegal aliens from obtaining licenses in the future AND prevent current illegal-alien license holders from keeping them. Anything else short of this would be driver’s license amnesty!


Please support Senator Norman Stone's SB 396, which would end driving privileges for illegal aliens.


THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR HELP!!!

ANOTHER TERRIFYING ARTICLE ABOUT HOW BAD IT IS HERE IN MARYLAND:

Easy-to-Get Licenses Expose Md. to Fraud
Out-of-State Illegal Immigrants Exploit Rules

By Lisa Rein and N.C. Aizenman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, March 28, 2009; Page A01

No. 5284 Randolph Rd., in a Rockville shopping center, is a modest Parcel Plus store where small businesses rent mailboxes by the month. It's also the address used by at least 42 undocumented immigrants living in states along the Eastern Seaboard to fake a Maryland residence so they could get a driver's license, records show.

Most of them got away with it, authorities say, evidence that Maryland -- the last holdout east of the Colorado Rockies in the nationwide effort to tighten rules on how states issue driver's licenses -- has become a magnet for illegal immigrants from Georgia to Delaware seeking driving privileges.

Along with New Mexico, Hawaii and Washington state, Maryland does not check the immigration status of drivers when they apply for a license. The policy has made the state vulnerable to widespread fraud by illegal immigrants living outside Maryland -- as well as to criminals seeking to create false identities -- according to court records and interviews with state officials.

And in some cases, state workers who issue licenses have run sophisticated schemes right out of Motor Vehicle Administration branches. Many of those employees have been successfully prosecuted.

Security is the chief concern cited by Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) and lawmakers as the General Assembly debates whether to require license-seekers to verify their lawful presence in the country. It's a change the Democratic-controlled legislature has resisted out of sensitivity to immigrants. But to comply with a federal law known as Real ID, the state must show this year that legal residents have access to a secure, nationally recognized license.

"This is not about immigration policy," said Maryland's motor vehicle administrator, John Kuo. "It's about the security of our identification card."

Immigrant rights advocates support a two-tiered system that would also comply with federal law by allowing newcomers without proof of legal status to get a limited license for driving -- but not to board airplanes, enter federal buildings or cross borders. O'Malley and other opponents say that wouldn't stop the fraud problem.

If it doesn't pass its own law, Maryland would be forced to meet an early deadline to put into effect other costly provisions of the Real ID law.

Kuo could not say how many undocumented immigrants from other states have obtained a Maryland license. But he noted that although there are at most 300,000 illegal immigrants living in the state, since 2006 his agency has processed about 350,000 licenses for drivers using foreign documents without U.S. visa stamps.

Maryland's license is considered so insecure that some states, including Colorado, Arizona and Oklahoma, no longer accept it as a proof of identity for relocating drivers.

Similar concerns have led the District to deny all out-of-state licenses as proof of identity. Virginia still accepts them.

MVA officials said it is relatively easy for illegal immigrants from other states to get a Maryland license. They must take a driving test, but they can prove their identity with a foreign driver's license or passport even if it lacks a U.S. visa stamp, along with statements from cellphone companies or banks. Such bills are also used as proof of a Maryland address -- and if you call a bank or cellphone company, they will change the address with no questions asked.

Many give a friend's address, said a clerk at a Langley Park store that charges fees to help with the application process. The clerk said about three clients a month use that ruse.

"They're mainly from New Jersey. It's pretty obvious," said the woman, who asked not to be identified.

Others choose rural locations where mail is easy to intercept, such as Winback Farm, a horse farm near Maryland's northern border. On Jan. 16, 2008, a woman with a passport from Argentina named Gabriel Beatriz Wekid gave the farm's address to the MVA in Harford County and provided a Sprint wireless bill listing it as well. But another document raised a flag to the examiner: a letter from a Delaware agency.

Wekid really lived in Newark, Del., and had never been employed at Winback, according to the farm's human resources director. Wekid, who could not be located for comment, was charged with two violations of fraud law, court records show. She paid a $55 fine and was given 60 days probation.

Officials successfully prosecuted 250 cases of residency fraud last year. The MVA cancelled an additional 246 licenses it says were fraudulently obtained in 2007, including those delivered to the Parcel Plus on Randolph Road.

Owner Felix Heymann said he does not require customers to prove they live in Maryland. "They give us an address," he said, "but it's very difficult for us to verify it."

Bill Donoho, head of the MVA's fraud division, said this represents a sliver of the illegal activity. With four full-time investigators each juggling 30 alleged fraud cases, he said, "we can't quite cope with all of it."

MVA officials said the scale of attempted fraud is underscored by the volume of out-of-state calls to the toll-free number dedicated to scheduling appointments for applicants using foreign documents without U.S. visa stamps. During the last three months of 2008, almost one in four of the 297,1000 calls originated from 53 states and territories outside Maryland. Among them were 21,998 from Virginia.

Officials have since blocked out-of-state calls. But it's still extremely difficult to get one of the 2,000 weekly slots. Several immigrants outside the Beltsville branch said it took them as long as eight months to get through.

The waits have spawned a cottage industry charging hundreds of dollars to help get licenses: making appointments, reviewing documents, providing a ride to MVA branches and translation services.

The services are legal. But motor vehicle officials emphasized that no one has to pay for them. And they said in a growing number of cases the brokers cater to drivers who should not be getting licenses.

Victor Torrez Gonzalez, 47, gave the MVA a Laurel address when he applied for a license in August, presenting a receipt for postage stamps as proof. But the examiner noticed a familiar name on the document: Carla Garcia, who had submitted four separate Maryland mailing addresses and was on a list of suspicious names. Gonzalez first said the couple lived together, then admitted she was helping him get a license. His real address was in Clifton, N.J. He told a Harford County judge he needed a license for work, records show. He spent 15 days in the Harford jail.

Maryland also prosecuted 507 immigrants last year for supplying false foreign licenses or other identity documents.

The 18 document examiners who vet the authenticity of foreign documents use special machines to inspect them and compare them to reference manuals. But they can not check them against foreign records.

In addition, the U.S. attorney's office has prosecuted members of numerous bribery rings that worked out of the MVA, including Valentin Millstein, the owner of a Silver Spring driving school convicted of scheming with an employee and former employee at the Beltsville branch. They issued more than 100 fraudulent licenses and identification cards to drivers, some illegal immigrants, who paid $2,000 each.

However, Kimberly Propeack of the immigrant advocacy group CASA of Maryland, noted that bribery still goes on in states where illegal immigrants can't get licenses. And she said that whatever residency fraud Maryland might prevent by tightening its rules would be outweighed by a rise in internal corruption and document mills.

"The more difficult it is to obtain [a license] legally, the harder people are going to struggle to obtain it fraudulently," Propeack said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 9032703561