To support Measure 88, which would allow Oregon to give “driver cards” to people who can’t prove they have the legal right to be in the U.S., you have to believe, among other things, that most illegal immigrants in the state don’t drive.
We’ve not seen any compelling evidence that this is true.
Most generally, people don’t defy U.S. immigration laws unless they have a job here. Most people drive to work. Given that nobody denies that thousands of illegal immigrants are working today in Oregon, it’s beyond dispute that many of those workers, and probably most of them, are already driving, license or not.
The argument proffered by Measure 88 proponents, that the issue of driver’s cards is an economic one, that businesses will suffer if the measure fails because their workers won’t be able to get to work, falls far short of compelling.
Measure 88 proponents also contend that giving these workers a government-approved card would encourage them to buy insurance.
But here’s the thing: Drivers are already required by law to maintain valid insurance. Only the supremely naive would blithely assume that people who flout one law — federal immigration — would definitely comply with another — buying driver’s insurance.
It’s hardly a revelation, of course, that America’s enforcement of its immigration laws is less than robust.
But there’s no good reason for Oregon voters to thumb their noses at those laws by rewarding immigrants who refuse to follow the well-worn path leading to full U.S. citizenship and all the rights and privileges — including driving, among the latter — that citizenship confers.