Should driver's licenses be issued to illegal immigrants?

No

1 of 35

by Joseph Whalen

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There is no doubt that illegal immigration is a huge and complex problem in the United States, largely due to the ineptness and inaction of our political leaders. Instead of taking measures to solve the problem and reduce the back breaking strain on public resources that illegal immigration is having on our society, our politicians instead debate ways to make life easier and grant more rights to illegal immigrants. The hypocrisy of their actions is astounding on many levels.

Millions of illegal immigrants live in our country today, using our tax payer funded resources every day while giving little to nothing back to the system. Most illegal immigrants work "under the table" due to their illegal status in the country, as a result pay no income tax. They live in crowded apartments with groups of other illegals because of justifiable restrictions on housing thus reducing the property taxes they pay and further reducing their contribution to society. Yet every day they use our hospital emergency rooms like their own personal physicians, claiming charity care in a broken health care system that is seeing more and more hospitals close or declare bankruptcy every day.

A massive burden is placed on police and fire, EMS and local governments who are dealing with the massive influx of illegal immigrants who do little to nothing to support the system they are thriving on. Their children flood into our schools increasing class sizes, reducing the overall education quality to taxpaying citizen's children and increasing the costs of education for those who are paying their fair share of taxes. All the while the meager funds they earn working illegally in the United States are funneled back to their homes in other countries robbing the United States of the economic fluidity that a working economy needs to survive.

Yet instead of supporting some of the grass roots efforts already underway to alleviate the burden placed on society by illegal immigrants our politicians seem intent on going out of their way to better the lives of illegal immigrants. It is no secret what the political motivation is for this misguided effort. The country is rapidly leaning towards a mass naturalization of its illegal immigration population. As we continue to allow the problem to get worse without doing anything constructive to curb the tide of illegal immigration the country is quickly becoming frustrated with the situation. The politicians are counting on this frustration leading to one single and unified shrug of the American shoulders as we concede the only solution is to naturalize the estimated twenty five million illegal immigrants currently in the country. When this happens the greedy politicians are counting on a new massive block of votes that they will be able to turn in their favor. Clearly the best interests of the country are not in the forefront of our representatives intentions.

In our hyper-paranoid super security conscious near police state where our government wants us to believe there is a terrorist lurking around every corner reminiscent of the "red scare" of the 1950's, even the thought of giving illegal immigrants drivers licenses seems counter-intuitive. We use our driver's licenses for everything from applying for credit cards to boarding airplanes. It has become the ubiquitous form of identification; it is trusted and accepted by just about everyone. In the wake of the "drivers license for sale" controversy that gripped the state of New Jersey only a few short years ago that resulted in the famed and some would say infamous digital drivers license, one would think we would be far more cautious regarding who we issue drivers licenses to. This is especially the case when considering issuing a drivers license to someone who you can't even confirm their home address or real name.

It would be nave to think that illegal immigrants aren't driving now even without drivers licenses. So the question begs to be asked, why issue drivers licenses? What benefit is there to society? If illegal immigrants, who by the very nature of their title and presence in this country indicate they have little to no reservation about breaking the law in the first place are already driving illegally, why would they bother to apply for a drivers license? Even if they were issued drivers licenses, do we honestly expect them to acquire the prerequisite car insurance so they can drive legally? The whole concept of issuing someone the privilege and it is a privilege not a right, a driver's license that is in the country under false pretenses is quite simply illogical. What comes after driver's licenses, library cards, voter registration cards, gun permits? Where do you draw the line?

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