Illegal Aliens

SB 227 (Public Safety Driving Privilege and Identification Card Amendments) has created quite a stir. The legislation establishes that illegal aliens can get driving privilege cards, instead of drivers licenses. Part of the impetus for SB 227 was a legislative audit showing serious problems, including voter fraud by illegal aliens.

One activist stated, "Whenever these people use this identification, they're going to be looked at as second-class citizens." This is a common thread in the statements against this bill -- two classes of citizens. Of course, the odd thing about such statements is that this bill affects people who actually are not citizens.

This situation highlights the serious problems with immigration policy in this country. National policy works to legalize high-end workers, while largely ignoring low-end workers. Low-end workers also benefit the economy. The jobs are here, and these workers come in droves looking for opportunity. So many workers come over illegally that we can't hire enough INS people to do much of anything about it -- meaning we have little say over who enters our country (would-be contributors v. would-be felons). If we had rational entry policy for laborers (meaning legal entry were more feasible), we could select those likely to contribute and we could more easily crack down on others entering illegally.

The federal policy puts states in a sorry position. We know illegal aliens are here -- performing jobs and, yes, driving; all of this, of course, is illegal; yet, we know INS has almost no capability or even desire to do anything about it. Even if the feds don't really care about the situation, in a meaningful way, or have the political guts to do anything about it, States should not endorse the illegal activity. For this reason, I think it has been a mistake to issue drivers licenses to illegal aliens (making Utah a magnet for illegal aliens -- like the 62 who received drivers licenses last year from the same apartment).