The following article is an excerpt from our March issue. Have you subscribed yet to the leading conservative magazine in West Tennessee? Subscribe online, its safe and easy.
By State Rep. Paul Stanley
In 2004 the Tennessee General Assembly passed a law granting Drivers Certificates to those operating motor vehicles in Tennessee. This act modified an earlier law that granted drivers license to non-citizens. Many, including myself, question why illegal immigrants are in our country in the first place, however, that issue is for another article.
I remember the driver’s license bill, since I was on the House Transportation Committee when it was first considered. The logic behind the 2001 bill was simple. If an individual was operating a motor vehicle on Tennessee roads, they needed to understand our laws and the rules of the road. The intention was not to give these individuals rights and privileges associated with our standard license, but rather a certificate stating they had passed an examination on driving rules. Language was included in the bill stating these certificates could in no way be used as a valid form of identification. Driving certificates would also give the Department of Safety an idea how many of these individuals were in Tennessee and where they resided. Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine our state would become an oasis for illegal immigrants from other states.
A good friend and colleague, Rep. Donna Rowland, attempted to add six amendments that would have tightened and strengthened the bill. However, our Democrat majority did not allow any of them to pass. The very next session I joined Rep. Rowland in trying to change this mistake, eliminating driver’s certificates for non-U.S. citizens.
Several problems were created, the first being, these certificates are indeed being used as valid identification in Tennessee, despite large type on the certificate stating, This is Not a Proper ID. Unfortunately, when holders of driving certificates present them upon request to store clerks or others seeking to verify identity, they are commonly accepted. Second, no one thought illegal immigrants from other states would flock to Tennessee in order to obtain these certificates. Advertisements in Texas, Florida and other states with large illegal immigrant populations suggested such individuals trek to the Volunteer State and visit the closest drivers testing station. Our testing stations are busy enough without having to handle out of state traffic.
On top of this, a FBI sting arrested two state employees and the owner of a driving school on charges of soliciting applicants from several states with guarantees of obtaining driving certificates under false pretenses. Given our current state of heightened border security and the social issues that go along with a growing population of illegal aliens in this country, I believe we should cease providing these certificates immediately. This will give us the opportunity to once again visit the issue with additional information and with the hope that our federal government will help the states address the issue on a national level.
This year, I will be co-sponsoring a bill to stop these certificates. I welcome your comments and suggestions prior to and during the debate around this issue: rep.paul.stanley@legislature.state.tn.us.
6 comments so far
When the bill that changed Tennessee driver’s license law was moving in 2001, I, and others, warned every single Tennessee legislator that the bill would allow illegal aliens to get driver’s licenses — the bill’s purpose, which no one could deny — and would make Tennessee a magnet for illegal aliens. We provided a great deal of information that was ignored.
The top three Tenn. legislators who tried to stop the licensing to illegal aliens were Donna Rowland, Marsha Blackburn, and Mae Beavers, all of them Republicans. They did have support from some other legislators, even more after the law was passed.
Blackburn is now in Congress. Rowland and Beavers continue to press on this issue at the state level. Several Memphis-area Republican legislators are now in the forefront of the attempt to demagnetize Tennessee to illegal immigration. We believe the Memphis-area Democrats are ready to do the same, paralleling the bipartisan cooperation on this issue in Georgia:
http://tinyurl.com/hjoeq
Donna Locke
Tennesseans for Immigration Control and Reform
” … these certificates are indeed being used as valid identification in Tennessee, despite large type on the certificate stating, This is Not a Proper ID.”
You can’t protect people from their own stupidity. If someone accept it as an ID, that’s his/her own fault.
The logic still stands … a Driver’s Certificate is just that … a certificate to drive!
In fact, I would like for US citizens to have the option of getting a certificate to drive that isn’t an ID! I have plenty of gov’t issued ID. I don’t need a driver’s license to double as an ID.
The fact of the matter is that illegals are here and they are driving. As a former law enforcment officer, I can tell what happens when you pull over an illegal driving a car.
If the person has no driver’s license or certificate and no other form of ID, then the person is usually placed under arrest. The illegal is taken to jail. That took me out of my patrol area for about an hour … so I couldn’t respond to any crimes during that time. The county spends money to process, house, and feed the illegal. If the person has never been arrested, it usually takes 2-3 days to identify and process him (all on the county’s tab). If the illegal isn’t wanted for any crime, them he goes before the judge, pays the fine for driving without a license and walks out the door.
The INS isn’t interested. They told us not bother them unless it was a felony crime.
Are those with the driving certificates getting insurance? I don’t know. I can tell that those without sure aren’t!
When I got my private pilot’s certificate, I wasn’t required to give a SSN. It was a certificate to fly … not an ID! In fact, it doesn’t even have my picture on it.
If you want to get a handle on illegal immigration, do so by deporting them … which is a federal job. Fiddling with the driver’s certificate isn’t going to make a difference on that front.
It is good that you did not have to give your SSN for your pilots certificate, the SSN is only for Tax Purposes…. If only we could get the number off of the voter registration cards…
“Small business owners say it is becoming increasingly difficult to hire workers, especially at minimum wage, for jobs in agriculture, contracting, and other fields involving manual labor”
— Hmmmmm, pay a higher wage then?
Immigration Splits Small Businesses, GOP
The Republican Party has always been known as the party of business, but on the contentious issue of immigration it is increasingly at odds with small business.
At issue is President Bush’s push to change the nation’s immigration policy. The centerpiece of his plan is to create a temporary guest-worker status for immigrants who enter the U.S. illegally. That’s counter to previous policy, which has always focused on stemming the tide of illegal immigrants.
In recent weeks, small business owners in several states have rallied around the president’s plan, but Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill oppose the temporary guest-worker policy. They are pushing instead for even tighter controls at the nation’s borders.
The acrimonious debate could drive a wedge between the GOP and small business groups, which have traditionally supported Republican causes. In California, for example, the state landscape-contractors association and other small business groups are pressuring lawmakers to support the president’s plan, according to the Sacramento Bee.
Small business owners say it is becoming increasingly difficult to hire workers, especially at minimum wage, for jobs in agriculture, contracting, and other fields involving manual labor. With the economy gaining steam, experts predict the labor market will tighten even further.
“I was most shocked at the Republican Party being against small business,” landscape-business owner Cynthia Smallwood told the Bee. “They don’t get that there is a labor shortage.”
What I would like to ask is on a personal note, how do these illegal immigrants gaining driving certificates, directly affect you? Furthermore, if these certificates are being used as a valid form of ID, how does that directly affect you and I? It doesn’t. But, I’d imagine you are one of the tax payers that would love to dump your money into the federal prison system to help build more prisons, to facilitate all of the illegal immigrants that are in our country. Rather than let them keep their mimimum wage (and less), jobs that nobody else will take either way.
How about illegal are breaking the law? How about the fact they are not paying taxes and are consuming tax paid benefits? What if one has an accident, who pays the costs?
The free market will determine the cost of the lower paid jobs, either legal citizens and legal immigrants will take the job at the low wadge, or the job will not get done, or the wadge will increase till someone takes the job.
Do not reward Illegals, send them home.