News Articles, Op-eds, and Letters

Vote ‘no’ on driver cards and support Americans

How should Portland-area Christians vote on Measure 88, which would create driver cards for illegal immigrants? Today in Oregon, more than 200,000 U.S. citizens and legal residents are jobless or “involuntary part-time workers.”

Yet, concurrently, 120,000 illegal immigrants may hold Oregon jobs. Most of these are in fields like food services, construction and building maintenance — jobs occupied disproportionately by young, minority and low-skilled Oregonians. Driver cards would better enable illegal immigrants to take and keep...

Last week, the Transportation Security Administration ("TSA") confirmed, contrary to claims made by illegal alien lobby organizations, that it will allow illegal aliens to board commercial airlines by presenting an Oregon driver's privilege card. (Politifact Oregon Oct. 7, 2014) Oregon's driving privilege cards will be given to illegal aliens, or any applicant who cannot prove that he or she has lawful presence in the United States, and is set for considered by Oregon voters on November 4th under Ballot Measure 88. (Id.)

The controversy arose when Lars Larson, a talk show radio...

To drive down the wages of hardworking Oregonians, the Democratic controlled Legislature passed Senate Bill 833 in October of 2013 to issue driver cards to illegal aliens. Governor Kitzhaber gleefully signed the bill and it was scheduled to take effect in 2014.

But Oregonians For Immigration Reform (OFIR) launched a campaign to save the Oregon worker. They sponsored a ballot initiative, Ballot Measure 88. It will appear on the ballot in November. A NO vote on the measure strikes down this odious law. Implementation has been put on hold until a decision has been rendered by the...

Choosing to break the law or ignore the law in the name of safety may make sense under certain circumstances. Ballot Measure 88 is not among those rare circumstances.

The measure would direct the Oregon DMV to issue driver's licenses to people even if they are unable to show they are legal residents of the United States. It is on the ballot because a bill that would have done this was approved by the Oregon Senate in 2013. Even before the House of Representatives could take action on the bill, however, a referendum petition effort quickly gathered the necessary signatures to send...

Those who advocate giving driver cards to individuals who live in Oregon illegally ignore the broader issues associated with illegal immigration.

The U.S. population is 317 million and will increase to over 400 million by 2050. Seventy percent of the increase will be due to both legal and illegal immigration, according to Support U.S. Population Stabilization. We allow about a million individuals to come here legally each year. The environmental impact of this rapidly increasing population is significant.

The U.S. is already experiencing water shortages in various parts of...

Legislators know and polling proves that citizens do not support the idea of legitimizing the presence of people here illegally.

None of the 10 states that offer driver cards or licenses to illegal immigrants has ever given voters a choice on the matter.

Oregon is the only state with the opportunity to vote on whether to grant state-issued ID (in the form of driver cards) to people illegally in our country.

We're fortunate to have the opportunity to vote no on Measure 88 for many reasons.

• Contrary to our opponents' claims, car insurance is not required to get...

The driver cards at issue in Ballot Measure 88 will likely be accepted by the federal Transportation Security Administration to fly on a plane, contrary to what the measure's title says.

The cards would allow illegal immigrants or other Oregon residents who can't prove citizenship to legally drive a car and hold insurance in their names, and the measure, referred from a 2013 law, has been presented as very limited.

The summary approved by Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum and the Oregon Supreme Court outlines its narrowness in great specificity:

"The driver card may...

Recent reports of ISIS terrorists coming across the southern border should not be a surprise to anyone.

After all, thousands of people illegally cross the border every day and President Obama seems pleased to see them coming. But when ISIS jihadists first enter the country from Mexico, they'll quickly discover there are only a handful of states that will grant them legal driving privileges.

If Gov. John Kitzhaber and the Democrats in the Oregon Legislature had their way, Oregon would have been one of those states, but an organization called Oregonians For Immigration Reform...

In April 2013, when Oregon lawmakers passed Senate Bill 833 granting driver cards to illegal immigrants, “their intent was clear ... to make the state’s roads safer for all Oregonians,” editorialized The Register-Guard in its endorsement of Measure 88 (“Approve driver card measure,” Sept. 14).

What “their intent was not,” the editorial asserted, was “to undermine federal immigration laws or to turn Oregon into a magnet for undocumented workers who would take jobs away from legal residents and siphon public resources.”

Intent — especially that of a 90-member Legislature — is...

Conservative radio talk show host Lars Larson makes no bones about where he stands on Oregon’s Measure 88 – the driver card initiative.

If voters approve it in November, Oregon would join 10 other states and the District of Columbia in issuing driver cards to those who can’t prove they are in the U.S. legally.

Larson staunchly opposes the measure and takes every opportunity to say so on his daily broadcast.

The claim:

He recently sent us a series of emails, which he said verified one of his assertions about the cards: That the Transportation Security...