December 10, 2004

"Driver's licenses: California should not ease rules for illegals"

From a San Diego Union-Tribune editorial:

At least some of the Sept. 11 terrorists, all Arabs, obtained illegal driver's licenses and used them to board airliners on that horrific day. Which is why the issue of granting driver's licenses to illegal immigrants is a matter of pressing national security concern.

Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, has led a long-running campaign to enact a bill allowing illegal immigrants to obtain California driver's licenses freely. His efforts run counter to post 9-11 initiatives at the federal, state and local levels to strengthen homeland security against terrorist infiltration...

But Sen. Cedillo is unfazed. He believes California should adopt its own standards for granting driver's licenses... Cedillo recently reintroduced his revised measure, which would extend licenses to an estimated 2 million illegals in California, and called on Schwarzenegger to negotiate a deal.

But the governor sensibly cited the new intelligence bill and declared that the question of driver's licenses for undocumented Californians should be put off until the new federal guidelines are developed. That is expected to take up to 18 months...

Apart from national security concerns, there are other reasons why illegal immigrants should not be given driver's licenses. One is a simple matter of fairness. Extending the privilege to undocumented residents would reward them for their illegal conduct. What's more, it would severely undermine enforcement of America's immigration laws. Gov. Schwarzenegger should stand firm against Sen. Cedillo's ill-advised attempts to legitimize illegal immigration.

Posted to at December 10, 2004 01:04 PM

Comments

Article: At least some of the Sept. 11 terrorists, all Arabs, obtained illegal driver's licenses and used them to board airliners on that horrific day. Which is why the issue of granting driver's licenses to illegal immigrants is a matter of pressing national security concern.

This is flat-out wrong. They can board commercial flights using their passports - they don't need to have US driver's licenses to do so. There are other reasons to deny illegal aliens drivers licenses. But preventing them from boarding commercial flights isn't one of them.

Posted by: Zhang Fei at December 11, 2004 09:53 AM