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News Articles, Op-eds, and Letters

Reject driver card Measure 88
The Register Guard
Letter

Passing Measure 88 won’t make our roads safer. What about illegal immigrants who fail or decide not to bother taking the written and road tests to qualify for driver cards?

What can we expect from drivers who consider auto insurance too expensive? And how many illegal drivers will resist outing themselves at Driver and Motor Vehicle Services offices?

Will those dangerous drivers decide to stay home and make our roads safer? Of course not. If they were concerned about the law, they wouldn’t be on the road to begin with.

No one should seriously believe that driver cards...

Passing Measure 88 won’t help
The Register Guard
Letter

Regarding the Sept. 14 editorial on Measure 88, authorizing driver cards for illegal immigrants, I see a bill with no possibility of enforcement.

The bill requires applicants to pass a written test and driving test and provide proof of vehicle insurance. If they fail any of those requirements, will they then not drive? I suspect they’ll return to doing what they’ve always done: drive illegally.

Currently, illegal immigrants who cause accidents resulting in injury or death simply flee the scene. Most of the time they can’t be found. If they’re located, they aren’t prosecuted...

Car insurance is not a requirement to obtain a driver card
News article

Here is some clarification on the laws regarding automobile liability insurance requirements and driving privileges in Oregon:

Oregon law requires automobile liability insurance on vehicles that are operated on any highway or premises open to the public, and to carry proof of insurance in those vehicles. You can find details at the Oregon DMV website here - http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/DMV/pages/driverid/insurance.aspx - and the Oregon Revised Statutes here - https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/lawsstatutes/2013ors806.html

Liability insurance is not a requirement...

Oregon Referendum Opportunity to Overturn Illegal-Alien Driver Card Law
NumbersUSA
News article

Oregon voters will have an opportunity to overturn a 2013 state law giving illegal aliens access to driver cards. Ballot Measure 88, a citizens veto referendum also known as “Protect Oregon Driver Licenses,” will go before the voters this November after surviving legislative and legal challenges lodged by illegal-alien advocates.

In 2008, Oregon enacted a law that required proof of citizenship or legal presence to obtain an Oregon driver license. Illegal-alien advocates sought to rescind that law in subsequent years and finally succeeding in 2013 with the passage of Senate Bill...

Driver's cards part of the problem - not a solution
East Oregonian
Op-ed

I would like to express my opinion as to how some of the illegal immigration issues in Morrow County have gotten to this point. These comments are my personal beliefs after nearly 40 years of law enforcement experience mostly in Morrow and Umatilla counties.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Morrow and Umatilla County experienced the start of the great southern border migration.¡¨ This transformation was largely due to the advent of circle pivot irrigation systems. With circle pivot irrigation and new water sources, farming turned a mostly desert environment into nothing less than...

Poll: Driver card measure 88 landslide
OREGON CATALYST
News article

In this poll, we targeted the most talked about race on the ballot — the driver card Measure 88. In our postscript, we show how many other states are wrestling with this issue and why this issue deserves a deeper look regardless of whether it passes or not.

A professional and scientific poll of 400+ Oregon voters was conducted by local polling firm NW Market Research in August 2014.

A full 67% reject Measure 88.

Based on reading the ballot title, 67% of Oregon voters would not pass Measure 88. A smaller 27% would vote to approve Measure 88. Those who were unsure...

State as well as federal policies fuel illegal immigration
The Bulletin
Op-ed

The surge of tens of thousands of Central Americans to our southern border is the predictable and inevitable consequence of government actions that encourage illegal immigration.

For that encouragement, President Barack Obama bears most of the blame. Culpable too, however, are policies enacted by states — such as driving privileges for illegal immigrants, more on which is below.

But first things first. “In his time in office,” USA Today correspondent Alan Gomez wrote recently, Obama “has stopped the worksite immigration raids … and created a program that has granted...

Massachusetts Committee Defeats Illegal Alien Driver's License Bill
Federation for Immigration Reform
News article

Legislation that would make illegal aliens eligible to receive driver's licenses and learner's permits in Massachusetts failed this session because of its lack of support among constituents and within the Massachusetts legislature. Last week, the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Transportation voted to send House Bill ("H.B.") 3285 to study, effectively killing consideration of the legislation this session. (Boston Globe, Jun. 24, 2014).

H.B. 3285 would have removed the provision in Massachusetts law that requires an applicant to provide a Social Security Number for proof of...

Driver cards’ business-union alliance harms law-abiding employers, low-skilled Oregonians
The Bulletin
News article

To see how industry lobbyists and Big Labor can collaborate to harm both law-abiding employers and low-skilled Americans, look no further than the new political action committee formed to push for illegal-immigrant driver cards.

Two trade-association executives head the PAC: Bill Perry of the Oregon Restaurant and Lodging Association and Jeff Stone of the Oregon Association of Nurseries. Among the PAC’s first donors: the political arm of the Service Employees International Union, which has contributed $20,000. The PAC will work to garner “yes” votes for the November ballot measure...

Driver cards will aid drug smugglers
OregonLive.com
Op-ed

Continuing the trend, much of the illicit drugs killing Oregonians are produced, manufactured and smuggled into the state by drug cartels operating out of Mexico.

On April 24, the Oregon Medical Examiner (OME) reported 222 drug related deaths in 2013 were caused by the illicit drugs....

When it came to illicit drug related deaths in the state last year, according to the OME, Multnomah County had the dubious distinction of leading all 36 Oregon counties ...

Putting these numbers into perspective, Multnomah County residents are just over 19 percent of Oregon's...

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