If you've been paying attention, there’s no denying that our immigration system needs fixing. For those of you who still need convincing, look no further than The New York Times. An article in today’s paper finds that most of the estimated 4.5 million undocumented immigrants driving regularly in the U.S do not have driver’s licenses.
This is a product of the status quo on immigration, where immigrants without papers trying to get to work or school must drive unlicensed and uninsured.
Only three states—New Mexico, Washington and Utah—offer licenses to undocumented residents, although New Mexico’s new Republican governor has pledged repeal. Obviously, granting driver’s licenses to individuals who aren’t authorized is not an ideal solution. But lack of progress on comprehensive immigration reform has pushed cities and states to take action in addressing some of the challenges, real and imagined, associated with undocumented immigration.
Some localities have embraced more restrictive immigration laws to crack down on unlicensed driving or renting to tenants without legal status. 71 law enforcement agencies have signed up for Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s 287(g) program, which trains local police officers to enforce federal immigration laws.
In 2009, ICE revamped the program in the interest of focusing immigration enforcement on dangerous and violent criminals. Local officials actually responsible for running the program apparently didn’t get the memo that 287(g) is intended to target dangerous “criminal aliens. Some instead view the program as a means to purge undocumented immigrants from local communities. As the Gwinnett County Sherriff explains, “That’s the point of the program, to remove illegal aliens from Gwinnett County.”
Nationally, at least 30,000 undocumented immigrants stopped for simple traffic violations in the past three years have been put into deportation proceedings.
In Gwinnett County, Georgia, nearly half of the immigrants marked for deportation by the 287(g) program last year were charged with non-DUI traffic violations, including 470 charged with driving without a license. These people can hardly be considered “criminal aliens” that pose a threat to public safety. In reality, most unlicensed immigrant drivers are simply trying to get to work or take their children to school. In Gwinnett and other suburbs across the country, poor transit access makes this nearly impossible without driving.
Without doubt, elected officials who embrace local immigration enforcement vociferously deny that it involves racial profiling. But it’s painfully obvious that these programs disproportionately affect the Latino community. According to The Times, although 48 percent of the immigrants in Gwinnett County are Latino, they were a whopping 93 percent of immigration detainees in local jail last year.
In October, a 27 year-old named Hiram Huerta-Fraga, who came to the U.S. with his father and stepbrother at age 13, was deported from Gwinnett after being pulled over for a brake light violation. His stepbrother Salvador told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that he felt targeted because of his race. Despite his feelings, he said: “I love this country and I want to be here… It's just like playing the lottery every day. You never know when you're going to get pulled over."
It’s hard to see how deporting hardworking, taxpaying, undocumented immigrants for these minor “crimes” benefits our nation’s economy or security. It’s harder still to support these actions when our Congress hasn’t improved the laws governing who can legally enter the country in over twenty years. Fortunately, this week the House took a major step in that direction by passing the DREAM Act.
The DREAM Act would offer a shot at legal status to young immigrants like Salvador. To qualify, applicants must have been brought here at age 16 or earlier, be under the age of 30, lived in the country for five years, pass a criminal background check and get a high school diploma. They also must agree to two years of college or military service.
Next week, the Senate will consider whether to pass the DREAM Act. As our federal and local immigration enforcement policies increasingly target immigrants for minor crimes, this limited measure is an urgent priority. With legal status, immigrants will be able to get better jobs, pay higher taxes and contribute more to our nation’s economy. Crucially, it will also allow thousands of young immigrants to get driver’s licenses.
The DREAM Act is only a drop in the bucket, just one tool needed to clean up the messes that define our national immigration system.
Follow Afton Branche on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AftonBrancheDMI
This is just wrong!
Don't enforce the borders and immigration laws and you've got millions living here illegally.
No documentation, so they commit identity theft and fraud, and drive illegally.
They take jobs that should go to citizens, employers hire them breaking more laws.
They are here so long that their kids grow up here, and they require the Dream Act to
provide amnesty from all the laws they've been breaking.
Our voices no longer seem to matter!
If we allowed Mexicans to get work visas (they are extremely hard to get in the US, again ask a farmer), we could track who is here and make it possible for employers to be honest about who they employ, as well as properly collect taxes. Also with a work visa, a drivers license would be permitted. And with the proper penalties, any employer caught hiring a person without a work visa could be punished so that it would be in no one's interest to employ such a person.
The problem is the people who want to send them all back are turning a blind eye to the fact that we need aliens to work the jobs they work. The problem with people who want immigration reform is that they have a lack of imagination and seem stuck on only one solution, total amnesty.
I say the solution is for everybody to calm down and think outside of the box and come up with a solution that works. Then we can finally end what seems to be a perpetual immigration problem.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy questioned prioritizing spending money on this instead of other initiatives Friday. "It is a case of mixed priorities when Congress can find millions in funding for students who are not here legally, yet fails to find adequate funding to help our senior citizens heat their homes," he said in a statement.
Even ICE has a limited budget and can't afford to deport all the illegal residents that are discovered, so it's correct to prioritize the most serious offenders. We must reject the argument that only serious offemders should be deported. ICE should deport as many as possible, with a future goal of zero tolerance.
I'm thankful Secure Communities is used by my sheriff and local police. It has improved public safety and security. The only draw back is they all aren't deported.
Visit NumbersUSA and help fight illegal immigration.
Oh yes, this puts it in a nut shell: "Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy questioned prioritizing spending money on this instead of other initiatives Friday. "It is a case of mixed priorities when Congress can find millions in funding for students who are not here legally, yet fails to find adequate funding to help our senior citizens heat their homes," he said in a statement."
There is quite a difference between illegal immigrants the article is written about
And legal immigrants that as my great, great grandparents where when they came to American through the front door.
did you read with the Dream Act illegals "could get better jobs"
hey, isn't that good news with 25% of US Citizens unable to find "better jobs"
yeah, what we need is amnesty for every young illegal - and don't you like the "must agree to two years of college or miltiary service"
agree to?? what abogus pile of back door crap the amnesty dream act is!!
But when a State passes a law mandating the employer's within that State, then Fed Gov't DOJ files suit against that State preventing the States implementation
Case in point ~
Arizona's Legal Worker Act of 2007, signed into Arizona Law by Janet Napalatano when Governor of AZ, but now as BHO Adm Secretary of Homeland Security is fighting against AZ's implementation.
http://www.resistnet.com/group/amnestyresisters/forum/topics/in-defense-of-arizona-everify
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No, no, no. The big cities and their representatives thought they were going to do a number on the American People and they.... underfunded.... the Border Patrol and Customs. Dope and people came pouring over, and much to their surprise, a whole lot... a MAJORITY of the American People began the process of telling the Feds to get the illegal aliens HOME. NOW.. as they look at a huge mess the Democrats were very much part of, they want to say oh dear.. lets make them citizens. That of course was what they wanted in the first place which would have reduced wages for the American People by a rather good deal And DID reduce wages between 1994 and today.
The Catholic Church has jumped on this issue. The Mexican Government is heavily involved in this business, and for those interested, go to this site to understand what all the opposition to allowing the Congress to whang us is about.
http://immigrationcounters.com/
Obama has refused to do interior enforcement of the Immigration Law. The solution is here if you shuck the amnesty.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/17/AR2010031703115.html?hpid=opinionsbox1