By Elizabeth Van Staaveren
April 21, 2013
In 2007, when the events of 9/11 and the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission were fresh in the public mind, Governor Kulongoski issued an Executive Order calling for stricter requirements for issuance of driver licenses. He also called upon the Legislature to enact legislation giving the requirements statutory authority.
In our own state, abuses on a significant scale had already been discovered in the sale of fraudulent driver licenses to out-of-state illegal aliens. "It appears that criminal organizations ... are using Oregon's permissive standards in order to assist persons to illegally obtain" licenses, Governor Kulongoski’s order explained.
In February 2008, a new Oregon driver’s license law was passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in both chambers of the Legislature. It required driver's license applicants to prove U.S. citizenship or legal residence. The law has worked well and citizens have had the security of knowing that illegal aliens and any criminals among them could not easily use Oregon as a source for falsifying their identity.
Why abandon this security in an increasingly dangerous world? It was very irresponsible of Gov. John Kitzhaber to yield to the pleas and demands of illegal alien advocates and actually sponsor a group of them to fashion SB 833 behind closed doors without allowing any input from citizens who represent the public interest. It was not only irresponsible but dangerous, because among the illegal aliens there are many who drink and drive recklessly and have killed or maimed innumerable innocent citizens in road crashes. Furthermore, the deadly drug trade flourishes in Oregon because illegal aliens are either directly involved themselves or can be forced by drug lords to aid them. Even more formidable are the international terrorists who take advantage of weak state driver license laws to embed themselves into a community and hide their massively crippling plans.
Citizenship is meaningless if illegal immigrants are allowed to enter and remain in this country encouraged and unchallenged. SB 833 accommodates and legitimizes illegal aliens, thus tarnishing the value of U.S. citizenship and saying to the world: citizenship matters little or not at all -- anyone can come here any time, and settle.
Already wages are depressed because of the volume of illegal immigration. Our less-educated citizens have to compete for jobs against illegal aliens who will work for a pittance and dare not protest working conditions to an employer. Citizens are losing out and many remain unemployed for long periods, a devastating situation for them, while they watch illegal aliens working at every construction site, in landscaping, agriculture, hotels, restaurants, and various other places.
A recent Gallup poll showed that more than 100 million people worldwide dream of a life in the U.S., and would come here if they could. The U.S. is the no. 1 desired destination for potential migrants. Of course we cannot admit all of them. Immigration laws are essential and must be enforced; otherwise the U.S. is on a disastrous path to overpopulation and chaos. Extending driver licenses to illegal aliens will only expedite the disaster.
This particular bill, SB 833, has been loosely written to allow many crucial decisions to be made by the DMV, an agency which is under political pressure from any Governor in office at the time. As the Oregon State Sheriffs’ Association stated in their testimony on SB 833, a driver privilege card should be “very clearly different from the current Oregon Identification Card and Oregon Drivers License. While the current language does provide some direction, Sheriffs believe the statute should be more specific. … Some of these requirements should be statutory rather than strictly administrative.”
The Sheriffs Association also stated that they think “obtaining a driving privilege document should be a robust and rigorous process and … they should be renewed annually. Sheriffs believe a four-year term is too long. …”
Instead of spending time making life here more comfortable for illegal aliens, our legislators should assist the federal government in enforcing the immigration laws. There are many things that states can do to help.
SB 833, granting driver privileges to illegal aliens, is harmful both to Oregon and to this country. Citizens should contact their legislators and urge them to reject SB 833.
The following information is from the NumbersUSA.com article Map of States and their Rules for Driver's Licenses:
llegal-alien advocacy groups rely on the assertions below to justify the issuance of driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. Each appears reasonable on its face, but none holds up under scrutiny.
Myth 1: Illegal aliens are going to drive no matter what so issuing them licenses will improve the safety of our roads by ensuring that they have passed a driving test and purchased automobile insurance.
In 2004, automobile accidents resulted in about 42,000 deaths and more than 100,000 injuries in the United States. The vast majority of the people involved in these accidents were licensed, insured drivers, so the correlation asserted by the advocates is tenuous at best. Moreover, most illegal aliens are low-wage workers who send a significant portion of their earnings to their home countries in the form of remittances. They have little incentive to spend their wages on car insurance, and even less incentive to wait for the police to arrive after an accident, since contact with law enforcement authorities could result in deportation. Finally, this suggestion that we just accept the inevitability of illegal aliens’ presence in the United States and treat them as lawful residents undermines our belief in law and fairness. No one would suggest that we not lock our doors because burglars are going to break in anyway.
Myth 2: Law enforcement officials will be better able to track illegal aliens if they are licensed, since their personal data will be entered into driver’s license databases.
This claim holds out the promise that law enforcement officials would actually use DMV data to locate and remove illegal aliens. Of course, the very same advocacy groups that use this argument would protest endlessly if such enforcement were proposed. More importantly, though, illegal aliens would not apply for licenses – and certainly would not provide their real names or addresses – if they knew the data would be used to track them. Many already use false names and/or addresses to obtain licenses, just as the 9/11 terrorists who obtained licenses in Virginia did.
Myth 3: DMV employees would have to become immigration experts in order to know which documents they can accept as proof of lawful presence.
It would, in fact, be burdensome if DMV employees had to know which immigration documents are legitimate and which are not. That is precisely why the federal government created the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system. SAVE is an automated system that allows state and local government officials to verify immigration documents. DMV employees would simply have to enter the document number and the name of the bearer into the computer and wait for an answer. Welfare agencies and certain employers have been using the SAVE system for years to verify immigration documents, so there is no reason DMV employees could not use it as well.
In response to the 9/11 attacks, the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) acknowledged the importance of ensuring that state-issued driver’s licenses and ID cards are accurate and can be relied upon as proof of the bearer’s identity. Betty Serian, Chairwoman of AAMVA’s Special Task Force on Identification Security, acknowledged that driver’s licenses are much more than just a license to drive. As the most widely a ccepted identity document, their reliability has a direct affect on homeland security: “When you can verify an individual’s identity you are one step closer to preventing fraud, protecting privacy and saving lives.”
In post-9/11 America, security is of the utmost importance. There is now a greater need for reliable identification to ensure that our planes, trains, buildings and communities are protected against terrorist threats. The issuance of state ID cards and driver’s licenses to illegal aliens undermines our safety. The 9/11 Commission addressed this issue squarely:
The following information is from the article "Illegal Alien Driver's Licenses - Talking Points" published by FAIR. You can read the original article (pdf) which contains references and footnotes.
Granting driver’s licenses to illegal aliens is bad public policy and should be opposed for the following reasons:
Granting illegal aliens driver’s licenses makes them invisible to enforcement authorities by giving them the one document they most need to secure employment, transact business and register to vote. This fact is especially disturbing considering that, unlike legal immigrants, illegal aliens are not subject to stringent background checks or face-to-face interviews to determine the existence of any national security threat that they might pose. The 19 September 11 terrorists carried among them over 30 state driver’s licenses and identification cards. These documents allowed them to obtain housing, transportation and other accommodations without raising suspicion while they planned and executed their deadly conspiracy.
States who grant driver’s licenses to illegal aliens become magnets for illegal immigration. Illegal immigration results in higher costs of living, reduced job availability, lower wages, higher crime rates, fiscal hardship on hospitals and substandard quality of care for residents, burdens on public services, increasing their costs and diminishing their availability, and a reduction on the overall quality of life.
Many states grant recognition of sister states’ driver’s licenses for purposes of granting driver’s licenses to applicants. In other words, an illegal alien could obtain a driver’s license in one state, then potentially take the driver’s license to another state and obtain a driver’s license based on reciprocity.
It is not fair to constituents to continue to increase taxes, cut their benefits and mortgage against their children’s futures while expanding benefits for illegal aliens. States must not invite illegal immigration to their state and place the fiscal burden of providing education, health care and other services to illegal aliens on the backs of taxpayers.
Legislators should not spend scarce resources by granting driver’s licenses to illegal aliens who are subject to immediate deportation. States have a legitimate interest in restricting licenses to those who are citizens or legal residents because of the concern that persons subject to immediate deportation will not be financially responsible for property damage or personal injury due to automobile accidents.
Many supporters of illegal alien driver’s licenses are under the misguided impression that our country needs illegal workers. That is simply untrue. Over 20 million Americans are unemployed or underemployed. The U.S. is in no “desperate need of the labor” of illegal aliens.
While the national unemployment rate is currently over 7.9 percent, many states unemployment rates well exceed the national average. For example, the unemployment rate is up to 8.8 percent in Illinois, 9.7 percent in New Jersey, 10.1 percent in California, 10.4 percent in Rhode Island, and as high as 11.5 percent in Nevada.
Providing driving privileges to illegal aliens will only encourage illegal aliens to remain in the state and continue to work in the underground economy for lower wages – severely undercutting American workers and yielding little to no tax revenue for the state.
Granting driver’s licenses to illegal aliens is a perverse incentive for illegal alien families to move to those states who issue them. Accommodating and rewarding those who violate our immigration laws encourages others to follow the same path and gives prospective immigrants little incentive to pursue the legal paths to immigration when they can side step the process and gain the same benefits.
Granting driver’s licenses to illegal aliens also insults those legal immigrants who patiently waited for months and years for the U.S. State Department and DHS to approve their application for admission or adjustment and paid thousands of dollars in travel, legal and medical fees to abide by the entry, employment, health and processing laws and regulations.
Federal law clearly states under what circumstances a person may legally reside in the United States.
An illegal alien, by definition, does not possess lawful presence and is immediately removable. Granting driver’s licenses to illegal aliens treats them as if they are lawfully present and facilitates illegal conduct. A driver’s license is one of the most useful single items of identification for creating an appearance of lawful presence. Providing identification and driving privileges to illegal aliens only enables the illegal aliens to continue to live, work, and vote in states unlawfully in contradiction to federal law.
In 2011, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety released a report that analyzed traffic accident data collected by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System database.
The AAA report reveals that from 2007-2009 less than 5 percent of the drivers involved in fatal car accidents nationwide were unlicensed drivers.
More than 95 percent of all drivers involved in fatal car accidents were licensed drivers or driver’s whose licenses were suspended, revoked, expired, cancelled, or denied.
As a result, any correlation asserted by advocates of illegal alien driver’s licenses between road safety and unlicensed illegal alien drivers is tenuous at best.
By the same token, it defies common sense to contend that the best way to combat accidents by illegal aliens is to give them all drivers’ licenses. If states really want to prevent crashes by unlicensed drivers, the state would discourage them from driving in the first place. This could be done in a variety of ways, but it is certainly not done by lowering standards for driver’s licenses.
Granting driver’s licenses to illegal aliens does not guarantee that they will purchase auto insurance. While many states’ laws require all motorists to have auto insurance, there is no reason to think that illegal aliens, having disregarded so many other laws, would obey this one.
What is mistakenly assumed is that illegal aliens, who generally are low-income, have the cash available to acquire auto insurance plus the incentive to buy it in order to protect what little assets they have. While a few illegal aliens may be willing and able to buy insurance, on the whole it will not significantly reduce the number of uninsured drivers. For instance, New Mexico, who issues illegal alien driver’s licenses, is also home to the nation’s second highest percentage of uninsured drivers.
Read the original article (pdf) which contains references and footnotes.
1. This bill does not make the state safer, as proponents claim. It makes Oregon much less safe. There is no way the DMV can accurately certify the identity of the thousands of illegal aliens who will apply for driver cards. Public safety has been the mantra of the pro-illegal alien crowd anxious to get these driver privilege cards into the hands of illegal aliens. Yet, the 2012 DMV report shows NO change in the rate of uninsured/unlicensed drivers since the stronger 2008 driver license bill went into effect.
2.The most important document a Mexican drug cartel operative might possess is a valid state driver card or license. It would enable them to drive up and down I-5 and throughout Oregon and sell their drugs. If a state trooper happened to pull them over for a traffic violation, the drug dealer could produce his Oregon driver card or license and it would be less likely the state trooper would have probable cause to search his vehicle.
3. Why should citizens be held to a higher standard than illegal aliens? All illegal aliens would have to do to get a driver card is to show a Matricular Consular card and some (possibly counterfeit) utility bill. Citizens must produce proof of their citizenship plus several other documents.
4. The doors will be open to anyone from anywhere to come to Oregon and get a driver card. Who knows what their intentions will be? No one at the DMV which is charged with issuing the cards, can possibly have the information necessary to judge intent. With only five state issuing driver cards, it's clear that Oregon will become a magnet...just as other states have, for those here illegally.
5. Making life comfortable for illegal aliens only encourages more to come. Already Oregon taxpayers pay over $1 billion annually for services to illegal aliens. SB 833 will greatly increase this financial burden by encouraging more to come.
6. Oregon has a good driver license law passed in 2008 with overwhelming bipartisan support in both chambers of the legislature. It should not be weakened. Why abandon the security this law provides in an increasingly dangerous world?
7. Citizenship is meaningless if illegal immigrants are allowed to enter and remain in this country encouraged and unchallenged. SB 833 accommodates and legitimizes illegal aliens, thus tarnishing the value of U.S. citizenship and saying to the world: citizenship matters little or not at all -- anyone can come here any time, and settle.
8. Already wages are depressed because of the volume of illegal immigration. Our less-educated citizens have to compete for jobs against illegal aliens who will work for a pittance and dare not protest working conditions to an employer. Citizens are losing out and many remain unemployed for long periods, a devastating situation for them, while they watch illegal aliens working at every construction site, in landscaping, agriculture, hotels, restaurants, and various other places. This is WRONG. Citizens’ interests should come first. Stop helping illegal aliens instead of citizens!
9. A recent Gallup poll showed that more than 100 million people worldwide dream of a life in the U.S., and would come here if they could. The U.S. is the no. 1 desired destination for potential migrants. Of course we cannot admit all of them. Immigration laws are essential and must be enforced; otherwise the U.S. is on a disastrous path to overpopulation and chaos. Extending driver licenses to illegal aliens will only expedite the disaster.
10. This particular bill, SB 833, has been loosely written to allow many crucial decisions to be made by the DMV, an agency which is under political pressure from any Governor in office at the time. As the Oregon State Sheriffs’ Association stated in their testimony on SB 833, a driver privilege card should be “very clearly different from the current Oregon Identification Card and Oregon Drivers License. While the current language does provide some direction, Sheriffs believe the statute should be more specific. … Some of these requirements should be statutory rather than strictly administrative.”
The Sheriffs Association also stated that they think “obtaining a driving privilege document should be a robust and rigorous process and … they should be renewed annually. Sheriffs believe a four-year term is too long. …”
11. Instead of spending time making life here more comfortable for illegal aliens, our legislators should assist the federal government in enforcing the immigration laws. There are many things that states can do to help. SB 833, granting driver privileges to illegal aliens, is harmful both to Oregon and to this country. Instead, work to pass mandatory E-Verify for Oregon employers; this is the most helpful step legislators could take to open up jobs for citizens and discourage the flow of even more illegal aliens into Oregon.
Esquivel Speaks Out Against Drivers Licenses for Illegals
By Rep. Sal Esquivel, April 30, 2013
Salem, OR—The Oregon House of Representatives today voted to pass Senate Bill 833, which establishes a system for creating driving privileges for residents who are undocumented or otherwise in the country illegally. Rep. Sal Esquivel (R-Medford) was among those voting against this bill, which passed 38-20.
“When we took our oaths of office, we swore to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the United States and Oregon,” Rep. Esquivel said. “But right now, we are turning around and breaking federal law.”
To view a clip of Rep. Esquivel’s remarks on SB 833, please go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWTCJwbohRA
Rep. Sal Esquivel has represented the Medford area in the Legislature since 2003. Prior to that, he served for over seven years on the Medford City Council.
By State Representative Gene Whisnant, April 30, 2013
Salem, OR--Rep. Gene Whisnant (R-Sunriver) was one of 20 "no" votes on SB 833 B, which passed on the House floor today with 38 ayes and 20 nays. The bill already passed the Senate with 20 ayes and 7 nays, and Gov. John Kitzhaber announced today that he will speak at the annual May Day rally on the steps of the Capitol tomorrow and sign SB 833.
"I am very supportive of the Oregon industries which supported this legislation," Rep. Whisnant said. "However, I disagree with the supporters' statement that this bill is a public safety measure designed to improve traffic safety."
SB 833-B allows many to obtain an Oregon "driver card," but there is no way to require those receiving a driver card to purchase insurance. Officials from New Mexico, which has a similar program, report that before they passed their law, an estimated 49,000 undocumented immigrants resided there. Since the law went into effect, some 80,000 licenses have been issued in New Mexico. Before New Mexico passed its law in 2000, 26.3 percent of its drivers were uninsured and in 2009, 25.7 percent were uninsured. That is the second highest rate in the United States.
New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez wants to repeal the law, citing concerns about fraud, human trafficking, organized crime and national security concern.
USA Today reported on February 24, 2006 that "Tennessee stopped issuing driving certificates to illegal immigrants Friday after investigations found they were being shuttled from other states, using fake residency papers and sometimes bribing state workers to get the cards."
"My 'no' vote was based upon the same concerns as New Mexico's Governor and on the fact that this bill does not serve as an Oregon public safety measure," Rep. Whisnant said. "The issue of illegal immigration is a federal one. We all should be pressuring our federal elected officials to solve this security issue: not creating state solutions that open state borders to security issues."
Gene Whisnant
State Representative
Senate Bill 833, the Driver Card Bill, has been signed into law after thorough debate on the House Floor. (To watch my floor debate on YouTube, click here.)
In last week’s newsletter “Drivers’ Card for Illegal Immigrants?,” I was struggling with whether or not it would be good policy for Oregon to pass the Oregon Driver Card Bill, which grants driving privileges to individuals who cannot prove legal presence in the USA. There were compelling arguments on both sides of the matter.
Thanks to key comments from among the thousands of reader responses to my survey on this important issue, I am convinced SB 833 is a flawed bill that could do more harm than good. (To see the survey results and read the responses, click here.)
Ultimately for me, the question came down to: what unintended consequences of the Driver Card Bill could adversely impact Oregon’s employers, illegal immigrants, and society?
1. Unintended consequences for employers presented with an Oregon Driver Card:
It will be difficult for Oregon employers hiring employees to drive company vehicles to pretend they don’t know they are hiring someone illegally in the country after seeing the applicant’s Driver Card.
The new Oregon Driver Card for all practical purposes will be issued only to individuals who desire driving privileges without providing evidence of lawful presence in Oregon and the USA.
Employers who know their prospective or current employee has only an Oregon Driver Card may assume they are dealing with someone who cannot prove they are legally in the USA.
Knowingly hiring someone who is illegally in our country or knowingly hiring someone who is believed to have provided falsified documentation—such as a Social Security Card, when the applicant would not have qualified to have one—may be a serious violation of state or federal laws and even subject that employer to criminal charges.
If an employer signs an I-9 form knowing the employee is illegally in the USA, the employer could be federally prosecuted for perjury, a felony.
2. Unintended consequences for illegal immigrants who obtain an Oregon Driver Card:
As a practical matter, those who obtain the Driver Card voluntarily identify themselves as unlawfully being in the USA. Government officials, employers and others who are shown the Driver Card will see it as an admission of illegal status. Any of these people who decide to report the Driver Card holder to federal authorities may subject him or her to possible arrest and deportation. Thus, there is an essential conflict between Oregon policy and federal immigration law.
When someone driving with a Driver Card is stopped for a traffic violation, the investigating officer will immediately know they cannot prove legal status.
If an individual with an Oregon Driver Card is arrested and taken to jail, the jailers can easily notify federal immigration authorities who can quickly check records, and immigration violation proceedings could begin.
3. Unintended consequences for Oregon society resulting from the new Driver Card law:
c. llegal is still illegal. Many who responded with comments to my survey feel strongly that a person who breaks our immigration laws should not be rewarded with legal driving privileges.
Conclusion: Notwithstanding the desire to help thousands of undocumented workers and their families be assimilated into Oregon society by enabling them to drive legally, supporters of the new Oregon Driver Card may do more harm than good. The Driver Card may make it more difficult for those illegally in Oregon to be hired. Employers who accept the new Driver Card may assume greater liability for illegal hiring practices. Those who show their Driver Cards may become targets for federal immigration law investigation. And, states such as Tennessee and New Mexico, that offered such driver cards, either have repealed those laws or has a Governor who wishes the laws were terminated.
Once again, I thank those who shared their input with me. Although I did not support Senate Bill 833, it now is Oregon law and will become effective January 1, 2014. Time will tell whether or not the Oregon Driver Card was good policy or fraught with negative unintended consequences.
Sincerely,
Dennis Richardson
State Representative