Written By : Kathleen McKinley

New Mexico Governor-elect Susana Martinez has promised to revoke the thousands of drivers’ licenses which have been issued by her state to illegal aliens under Gov. Bill Richardson. Under Richardson illegals did not have to show proof of citizenship to obtain a license.

As the link points out, “The policy has made New Mexico a favorite with human smugglers and those who make their living from selling fraudulent documents.”

You don’t think these illegals with license are voting as well, do you? How much easier is it to vote when you have a driver’s license? Completely unacceptable.

This story becomes more interesting when you consider it is the first female Hispanic Governor that will revoke the licenses.

This is about our safety as well. As FAIR (Federation For American Immgration Reform) points out:

As a result of such laxity in licensing, all of the 9/11 hijackers had driver’s licenses or state non-driver’s identification cards, which they were able to use when renting housing, opening bank accounts, and boarding planes. For example, Hijacker Hanni Hanjour and Khalid Al-Midhar obtained Virginia licenses by hiring an illegal alien to co-sign their residency forms and listing his address as theirs. The day after they got their licenses, they sponsored two other hijackers, Salem Al-Hamzi and Majed Moqed, to get licenses, too.4

How does this happen?

Although some states do require that foreign license applicants be legal residents, too many states do have such a requirement or do not thoroughly verify applicants’ identities. Seven states don’t even require a Social Security number (SSN) to get a state ID, or they will simply give applicants another number if they don’t have an SSN.3 As a result, temporary foreign visitors and illegal aliens can easily obtain state IDs. These IDs are not being used solely to drive; since they are effectively our only universal identify document, they often are treated as proof of legal residence in the U.S.

We have GOT to stop making it easier to be illegal in this country. We have GOT to figure out a way to bring those here illegally into the open in a safe way. We must provide a guest worker program where we can know who is here. To me, it really is the only way.

Those against a guest worker program have to realize that they must compromise. This would not allow an illegal to become a citizen. They would have to get in the back of the line, just like anyone else. But it would identify those here, and allow them not to be exploited! Which is a big concern of mine. Companies would no longer be able to take advantage of those afraid they will be turned in. This is so necessary.

Guest workers could then apply for a special kind of drivers license that identifies them as a guest worker.

My idea is for those young people who have lived in the United States almost their entire lives, be given the opportunity to apply for citizenship (the back of the line, of course) without fear of being deported and be given a green card that lets them stay until they have become a citizen. The older generation would apply for guest worker status with the same opportunity to get in line. This should only apply to those here already. I think different rules would need to apply for those who apply for the guest worker program coming from Mexico from now on. There should be some incentive to come here legally throught the guest worker program, and immediate deportation who come here illegally not through the program.

There simply must be compromise on this issue. What we have now is unacceptable and unsafe. Unsafe for America and unsafe for the illegal. We have ignored this for too long. We refused to listen when Pres. Bush was willing to compromise. Both sides had their reasons for not going along with his plan (which also put illegals at the back of the line I might add), but we can no longer let our partisanship get in the way.

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