The debate about illegal immigrants obtaining licenses is a farce.

[1prophet]

Recently there have been many debates for and against licensing of illegal immigrants in many venues including these forums on this topic, but it seems like another distraction blinding us from the inevitable which is supposed to start next year and be implemented by 2011, unless the ACLU somehow gets the courts to stop it.

New Security Rules for Driver's Licenses

The traditional driver's license photograph would be taken at the beginning of the application instead of the end so that should someone be rejected for failure to prove identity and citizenship, the applicant's photo would be kept on file and checked in the future if that person attempted to con the system again.

_The cards will have three layers of security measures but will not contain microchips as some had expected. States will be able to choose from a menu which security measures they will put in their cards.

Over the next year, the government expects all states to begin checking both the Social Security numbers and immigration status of license applicants.

Most states currently check Social Security numbers and about half check immigration status. Some, like New York, Virginia, North Carolina and California, already have implemented many of the security measures envisioned in REAL ID. In California, for example, officials expect the only major change to adopt the first phase would be to take the photograph at the beginning of the application process instead of the end.

After the Social Security and immigration status checks become nationwide practice, officials plan to move on to more expansive security checks, including state DMV offices checking with the State Department to verify those applicants who use passports to get a driver's license, verifying birth certificates and checking with other states to ensure an applicant doesn't have more than one license.

Big debate about it at DailyTech

 

[BoomerD]

Depending on who gets elected between now and then, it wouldn't surprise me to see some kind of exemption for the illegals to creep out of Congress...and maybe be approved by the White House...After all, we can't be pissing off the corporate owners of the USA now, can we?

 

[ranmaniac]

There are already laws on the books to deal with illegal immigration, however, a lot of the politicians don't want to touch it, or the ones that do care don't have the power to do anything about it.

 

[rpanic]

Originally posted by: ranmaniac
There are already laws on the books to deal with illegal immigration, however, a lot of the politicians don't want to touch it, or the ones that do care don't have the power to do anything about it.

That?s why it?s a joke; this like everything else will only apply to citizens. Illegals need not worry about breaking any laws, what will they do if they catch an illegal trying to get a license, nothing so what does it matter. Just enforcing the laws that we already have would do away with tons of the identity thefts going on now.

 

[FoBoT]

there is no law requiring you to get a DL if you are that paranoid

 

[CycloWizard]

The reason illegals getting licenses in NY was a big issue was because that would have taken NY out of compliance with the proposed REAL ID, which would have been a huge setback to the nationwide program. The REAL ID program requires all states to be in compliance by some year (2011?) for it to stay on the books. If the third most populus state suddenly dropped, that would create a serious problem on a national level.

Edit: I'm not saying I agree with the REAL ID program, I'm just explaining my take on why I think licenses for illegals was in the news for so long.