Illegal immigrants haven't earned driver's licenses

By: JIM TRAGESER - Staff Writer | Friday, December 17, 2004 10:20 PM PST ∞

Is immigration a racial issue? What about illegal immigration? There are certainly those who seem to think it is. Or at least ought to be. Witness the Mexican American Political Association, which is calling for a boycott of all gasoline stations in California every Monday as a way of protesting the fact that illegal immigrants can't get driver's licenses in California.

But if you're here illegally, you're not a Mexican-American. It doesn't matter where you're from if you broke the law in entering the United States, you're not from here. You're not Irish-American, not Australian-American, not Herzegovinian-American.

You're not anything-American.

So why would a group that named itself along ethnic lines be getting into an area that should have nothing to do with ethnicity, with race?

Illegal immigration is about a nation's right ---- every nation's right, in fact ---- to define its rules for citizenship, to enforce its borders.

I can't think of any other country where an argument is even made that the national government has no right to enforce a reasonable immigration policy.

Now, one can make the argument that this country has a hypocritical attitude toward Mexican laborers ---- welcoming them economically while condemning them legally and beating up on them politically. And that's a good argument, and one I'll buy into.

But there's a world of difference between arguing for a bracero program (which our current president has proposed, only to see it languish in partisan squabbles in Congress) or other immigration reform and arguing for the state government to simply trump federal law.

Because that's exactly what a state driver's license would do if issued to people who have no legal right to be here. To issue official government documents to people who broke the law in entering our country is to stand logic and legal precedent on their collective heads.

It would be like having someone break into a grocery after hours, and then offering them a store membership card so they can get discounts.

It's nuts is what it is.

Well, that and politically counterproductive.

A majority of voters clearly oppose issuing illegal immigrants driver's licenses or any other official government document. The governor was merely following the wishes of the people of this state when he struck down a law to grant such licenses ---- something members of the state Legislature might want to consider before they pass another such law.

What the issue is not is racial.

And when political activists say, or even just imply, that opposition to driver's licenses for illegal immigrants is based on prejudice against Latinos, it's an insult not only to all those who simply believe the law ought to make some sort of sense, but it's also an insult to those Latinos who busted their butts to come here legally or whose families were among the original Californios who helped found this state.

Contact staff writer Jim Trageser at (760) 740-5424 or jtrageser@nctimes.com.