October 11, 2004

NYC non-NYT PIIPP spotted

A PIIPP ("pro-illegal immigration puff piece") has been spotted in NYC, but for a change it's not from the NYT.

From NY Newsday's "Driven by DMV alert" by Robert Polner:

When Jose, a house painter, got the letter at his Brooklyn home this summer, he panicked. He was among 600,000 people notified by the state Department of Motor Vehicles that they had 15 days to produce a valid Social Security number or face the loss of their driver's licenses.

Without a license to operate his company van, the immigrant from Mexico says he has no legitimate way to support his wife and American-born son. And without legal residency, Jose cannot get a Social Security number.

The first sentence qualifies this as a PIIPP; the second paragraph qualifies this as Kafkaesque.

The readers of NY Newsday are going to be awfully confused by this article. If you think this newspaper should do their job and disclose that Jose is an illegal alien (not an "immigrant") and therefore he's ineligible to be working here in the first place, please send a short, polite email to nyc@newsday.com. These addresses might work as well: deborah.barfield@newsday.com, ken.fireman@newsday.com

Posted to Immigration_piipps at October 11, 2004 07:55 PM

Comments

That 600,000 figure is misleading. My wife, who took my last name 25 years ago and has been using it consistently, also got one of those letters. Despite the fact that her Social Security report comes in our last name, SS reported her maiden name to NY. I don't know why. It only took her half a day to correct the problem, so, you know, no big deal. It's only time, right?

I just have never understood how the federal government (which denies funding to States and municipalities for a whole host of things, including seat belts, drunk driving alcohol limits, drinking age, etc) has let the states, cities, school districts, etc openly flout federal immigration law.

Great site!

Posted by: Tony Iovino at October 12, 2004 01:36 PM