Thank you so much for your recent letter regarding illegal immigration legislation. I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to write and for informing me of your concerns. The Senate has passed several pieces of legislation to strengthen North Carolina’s immigration laws along with tougher security measures for obtaining driver’s license.

As a response to the federal government’s failure to enforce immigration laws, the Senate approved allowing State and Local law enforcement agencies to give their officers the authority to investigate arrest and detain illegal immigrants. State agencies will also be required to check a federal database to verify that newly hired employees are authorized to work in the United States. In addition, the budget provides funds to hire legal staff in the Office of State Personnel to make sure North Carolina is in compliance with federal laws regarding the employment of foreign nationals.

The Senate has strengthened driver’s license security measures by voting to eliminate the use of the Individual Taxpayer ID Number (ITIN) as a valid identification document for driver’s license applicants. The Internal Revenue Service, which issues the ITIN to taxpayers but does not verify their lawful presence in the United States, has cautioned states against accepting this federal document as proof of identity for driver’s license. These measures are step in the right direction in strengthening North Carolina’s immigration laws.

Again, I appreciate your taking the time and effort to write and share your views with me. Please feel free to write to me whenever any issue of interest to you is brought before the North Carolina General Assembly.

Sincerely,

Marc Basnight

Thanks to everyone's phone calls, letters, e-mails, faxes and W's persistence, they finally got our message!!