Who Gets a Driver’s License?
Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, January 2, 2015 – By Sue Ella Deadwyler
In ten days the 236-member Georgia General Assembly convenes with 25 new members – fifteen in the House and 10 in the Senate. They’ll introduce and pass bills that affect every one of us, and some have been pre-filed already.
On November 17th Senator Josh McKoon pre-filed S.B. 6 to stop the issuance of driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. His bill requires the Department of Driver Services to use Homeland Security’s E-Verify system to confirm the identity of job applicants.
That works for aliens applying for jobs, but, especially, we should be concerned about the thousands of teenagers crossing the border as “unaccompanied children,” some old enough to have a driver’s license. However, they are not legal residents of the United States, and, currently, don’t qualify for the president’s “approved deferred action status.” Therefore, they should not be issued driver’s licenses. Fact: 47 percent of “unaccompanied children” crossing the border illegally are 15- to 17-year-old males. They are invited in, set up as residents (though they are here illegally), provided financial and in-kind assistance, don’t speak or read English and, unfortunately, could apply for a learner’s permit or regular driver’s license in their native language, despite their inability to read traffic signs written in English or get directions spoken in English.
During a U.S. House (Judiciary Immigration and Border Security) Subcommittee hearing December 10th Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies made this very revealing statement: “They come to us with an extreme disadvantage. They have a cursory awareness of the alphabet. Some have never held a pencil before.” That’s how far behind they are, based on age and grade level in school.
Fact: Beginning January 1, 2015, illegal aliens in California “will be able to take another small step out of the shadows by applying for California driver’s licenses,” as reported in the LA Times. The article continued, “As nine other states and the District of Columbia have figured out, ensuring public safety on the roadways is more important than punishing people for being in the country illegally.” The other nine states issuing driver’s licenses to illegal aliens are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Vermont, and Washington.
It’s beyond rationality to think that highway safety is more important than enforcing U.S. law and, hence, U.S. sovereignty. How can a patriotic, law-abiding United States citizen believe such stunningly skewed misinformation? It might not fit here, but I’ll quote Ronald Reagan anyway: “The trouble with our Liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.” For Georgia Insight I’m Sue Ella Deadwyler, your Capitol correspondent.