April 09, 2004

Florida sheriffs oppose Jeb Bush's illegal alien driver's licenses bill

Sheriffs around the state are quickly opposing a proposal backed by Gov. Jeb Bush to allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses, saying it is too great a security risk.

The opposition has included sheriffs who serve on the state's Domestic Security Task Force.

"It's incomprehensible to me that you would legitimize through the issuance of a driver's license someone who is here illegally," said Marion County Sheriff Ed Dean, who heads the law-enforcement arm of the task force. "I'm sure the governor has his reasons. From strictly a law-enforcement viewpoint, I would have to respectfully disagree..."

"This law is very poorly crafted and flawed from a domestic security standpoint. I strongly oppose it and cannot support the conceptual intent, either," [Collier County Sheriff Don Hunter] wrote in an e-mail.

He warned that there are six Latin-American terror groups that are active in and around Florida. The documentation they would need from their countries to get a license can be easily obtained or counterfeited, he said...

I couldn't find a definitive list of Florida terrorist groups. Perhaps one or more of them are Cuban exile groups; others are probably Islamist; he might be thinking of groups from other backgrounds as well. One possible reference is to Sami al-Arian. ('Feds expose Florida 'cell', 'Al-Arian was FBI informant briefly, documents show', 'Bush's terrorist buddy'. See also the section "Palestinian Islamic Jihad-Shaqaqi Faction" at this page.

However, my search for terrorist groups in Florida brought up some links of varying wackiness. This page ties cronyism and alleged dirty tricks by the whole Bush family to - wait for it - bass fishing. Terrorism is mentioned in relation to Bush appointee Otto Reich; see 'Bush nominee linked to Latin American terrorism' or 'The President's Favourite Terrorists'. Coming from the other side of the wackiness scale, see 'Russia Hides Information That Could Save Lives in War on Terror'.

Many or most of the allegations in that last set of articles might be false. However, isn't it a bit interesting that there's such a Latin American flavor to all those Bush connections. Jeb and illegals, Dubya and illegals, Jeb and Dubya and George I and Cuba, etc. etc. Taken in this light, the Bush family loses whatever all-American facade it had as one realizes that in their case "all-American" refers to a hemisphere.

Posted to Immigration_dls at April 9, 2004 09:19 PM

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