You might recall the story of the Fremont mother and daughter who were murdered in Fremont a month ago. They were illegal aliens, and one of their family members tried to blame their murders on the fact that they didn't have driver's licenses. They were murdered while walking to work; if they'd had driver's licenses they could have taken a car. One of the articles mentioned that they couldn't afford a car, but, I digress don't I.

The AP, the Arizona Republic, and other newspapers tried to politicize this and turn it into not only a it-could-be-a-hate-crime because the perp was supposedly white, but they also tried to turn it into a poster crime for allowing illegal aliens to get driver's licenses.

Now, state Senator (and former member of the racial separatist organization MEChA) Gil Cedillo has joined the fray. See 'Fremont slayings inflame driver's license debate':

The unsolved slayings of two women violently attacked while walking to work earlier this month has become a rallying cry for supporters of a movement to allow illegal immigrants the right to obtain driver's licenses.

But license opponents accuse them of memorializing the victims, who were living in the country illegally, for the wrong reasons.

Immigrant-rights groups have staged three vigils to promote their political cause since Feb. 1, the morning a man wielding a tree branch beat to death Maria Esperanza Hernandez, 39, and her daughter, Maria del Carmen Castillo Hernandez, 19.

The most recent vigil, which was held Thursday, was attended by state Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, the author of a controversial license law that was repealed last year.

Many of the nearly 100 participants who marched along Fremont Boulevard with Cedillo -- chanting phrases in Spanish, such as "What do we want?" "Licenses." "When do we want them?" "Now!" -- say they are certain that the victims would still be alive had they had a license and been able to drive to work...

"What happened to these two women wasn't right," said Ramon Correa, 55, an auto mechanic who marched with the crowd. "We need the laws to change, for the good of all of us."

But connecting the deaths to the license law is rankling those who oppose the granting of licenses to undocumented immigrants.

"They're exploiting somebody's death," said Al Figone, 53, a San Jose salesman who is critical of any legislation to allow illegal immigrants to legally drive. "It's a political thing, it needs to be resolved on a political level..."

...Cedillo, in an interview at the vigil, said anybody who accuses him of political grandstanding is taking a "cynical perspective" of the deaths. "Do we know for sure that but for this law, that this situation wouldn't have happened? We don't. But we do know for sure it did happen, and it happened under these circumstances."

Some participants at the vigil, organized by immigrant rights group Voluntarios de la Comunidad, a San Jose-based organization, acknowledged that politics plays a role in promoting their cause.

"Maybe we've drifted a little, and I have a conscience to say that," said Blanca Estela Villegas, a 34-year-old hotel banquet supervisor who wore a bandanna of a U.S. flag on her head. "But," she added, "What are we supposed to do?"

[Also appears in the San Jose Mercury News under title 'License ban tied to two slayings'.]