Once again it’s necessary to steer the emotional debate over handing driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants toward the facts.
There has been overwhelming evidence of New Mexico’s current system being used to commit fraud: ♦ Numerous federal court cases charge individuals with ferrying immigrants to the Land of Enchantment and bilking them of thousands of dollars for an $18 four-year license. ♦ An independent analysis of state data by The Associated Press has discovered multiple immigrants using the same business address as their purported residence (48 at an Albuquerque smoke shop, 17 at an Albuquerque automotive repair shop, 17 at a fictitious Albuquerque address near a scrap yard). ♦ Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration found around a third of the 10,000 letters it sent out to immigrants with New Mexico driver’s licenses were returned as undeliverable. So much for the claim that tacking on a two-year limit to the current policy of issuing state-of-the-art government ID that allows the holder to board a plane — or more likely quickly cross state lines and trade it in for another state’s license — will ensure honesty. House Majority Leader Ken Martinez, D-Grants, has endorsed such minor alterations to the current practice, claiming they will “hit the bad guys hard.” Really? Requiring someone to renew a license in two years when he or she has already left the state and traded up is less than meaningless. Same for strengthening penalties for submitting false documents to the Motor Vehicle Division — MVD’s computer system is so antiquated it doesn’t flag duplicate addresses, and now it’s going to track down scofflaws who have fled the jurisdiction? Ditto for last year’s proposal to require proof of at least six months of residency in New Mexico — how difficult is it to back-date a fraudulent rental document? Same goes for resurrecting the ridiculous fingerprinting requirement, which works only if the license applicant committed a crime (other than crossing the border without permission) before applying for New Mexico’s tamper-proof card. Besides, can you really fingerprint only people who admit being here illegally? Or does that apply to all applicants? And then what happens with those fingerprint cards? These so-called tougher rules wouldn’t have stopped the 911 terrorist attacks. They won’t stop New Mexico (and Washington state) from continuing as the nation’s two meccas for predatory human smugglers and illegal immigrants seeking official ID. And they won’t get New Mexico into compliance with the federal Real ID Act come January 2013. Short of stopping this state practice, as Gov. Martinez has proposed, there’s a proposal from Albuquerque Democratic Rep. Bill B. O’Neill that at least gets beyond the emotion to address some of the issues. O’Neill says his plan, HB 171, “repeals the 2003 law and substitutes a provisional license for foreign nationals who do not have a Social Security number.” Similar to Utah’s policy, O’Neill’s driving permit would allow holders to “still secure car insurance and lawfully drive themselves to work, or to church, or to school to pick up their children. It cannot, however, be used outside of New Mexico — this license would have no validity outside of our state borders. Thus, the fraud problem is immediately solved.” Well, except for the small item of flouting federal immigration law. Yet this compromise, a reincarnation of proposals from past sessions, would be less conducive to the criminal conduct our current statute encourages. But even this kind of limited permit has been opposed by those whose real agenda is de facto amnesty. Those folks have argued it sets up a discriminatory separate-but-equal system that marks holders with a scarlet license that sets them up for further discrimination. They also say Martinez has not compromised. She has. Her proposal is only for issuing new licenses, not revoking existing ones. If O’Neill is serious about his permit proposal, then he should be willing to apply it retroactively and include wording on the top of the permits like Utah that says clearly “Not Valid for Identification Driving Privilege Only” — not a tiny “J” on the back listing it as a restriction along with corrective lenses. Meanwhile, 47 other states seem to get along just fine with license laws that track the federal legislation. Voters have strong views on this issue. It’s time for legislators to cast their ballots and let voters decide if they agree. This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
