... but what else is new? Okay, none of the following is really new, but some of it is a bit more blatant than that to which I'm completely accustomed. Or: you find the strangest things in some stories...
Now, I don't want to get started on the whole license thing; there isn't enough coffee (on the planet),,, and besides, it would ruin the rest of what is shaping up to be another very pretty day.
I did find this little tidbit interesting, for a completely different reason.
Democrat Bill Richardson of New Mexico said the law, known as the REAL ID Act, unconstitutionally infringed upon state laws such as his, where illegal immigrants have been able to get licenses.
New Mexico's approach made roads safer since licensed immigrants could get insured, helped the state keep track of immigrants, and also helped integrate immigrants into the community, he said. [emphasis added]
I have to hand it to Richardson. It takes (cover your ears) balls to bitch about the Fed wanting to tighten up rules regarding who may legally obtain driver's licenses; while simultaneously erasing restrictions on illegal alien residents to the point where he approves of helping 'integrate' them into the community.
... I guess what I really want to know is,,, whose side is Richardson on?
At least they know who SOME of them are, what they're doing, and where. That's more than you can say for the feds.
B) The only 'security' offered by this sort of operation is the knowing that some of the illegals might take advantage of the largesse and sign on at DMV. The ones about whom 'we' really should be worried? Won't.
C) I cannot agree that rewarding criminal behavior is okay, even if the Fed is abrogating its responsibilities. More cutting of one's nose to spite one's face is not the answer. I would perhaps be a bit less unhappy about it were I less convinced that, along with the driver's licenses, they also get the full range of citizenship privileges,,, including voting.
Call me a xenophobe if it makes you feel better, but I don't think illegal aliens should be allowed to vote for the President of my country.
B) If you don't think we need to be worried about the illegal immigrants whose illegal activities stop with that step across the border, then why are we advocating "punishing" the vast majority of them to get the few bad ones?
I'm also not so sure that the ones we're worried about wouldn't do that. They may have a need to appear as "legal" as they can. Though I do agree that any sense of either safety or security through this means is a longshot.
C) I don't find myself thinking of the illegal immigrant who comes here to work as a criminal. In my mind, they are closer to refugees... but not exactly that either. I fully agree they should not be extended the right to vote merely because they are here.
B) Perhaps we're talking about different aspects of security, but I don't advocate not punishing any of them. The punishment should be limited to what fits the crime, namely, deportation for most of them, but they should all be punished.
Too, if just being here is illegal, how can 'illegal activities' stop once they're here? I accept that many of them are hard-working, basically honest people, but if one has a problem with the immigration process and/or regulations, the answer is to fix the problems, not ignore the process.
C) There are, as ever, at least two sides to every issue, and the fact that the pressure is (isn't it always) falling on the people who do the paying, rather than the people who cause the difficulty in the first place, doesn't make it any easier.
That said, if they want refugee status, the way to get it is not to knowingly violate borders and proceed on the 'forgiveness is easier to obtain' presumption. (however apt is is proving itself to be)
Consider, however: laying aside the specific criminality-or-not of their crossing into the country, and granting that there is not a big stamp on the licenses they do get that says 'Illegal',,,
... how are they to be prevented from voting without making the voting registration people perform the same tasks that at the very possibility that his DMV people will have to do them, upset Richardson so?