In California Common Sense Finally Wins Over Fear and Loathing About Illegal Immigrants Right to Drive

Of Course, the Fear and Loathing Still Remains with Republicans

One of the major issues in the Conservative’s drive to label all illegal immigrants as wanton criminals has been the issue of whether or not an illegal immigrant should be allowed to have a driver’s license.  The issue, like most issues is not simple.  And the issue in California is not with respect to all illegal immigrants, it deals with young men and women brought to this country when they were young, and who have now been given the right to stay and work providing they have led and are leading exemplary lives.

This should not be a controversy.  A person need to drive in order to thrive in the United States.  And most illegal immigrants are going to drive with or without a driver’s license. So providing them with a driver’s license does nothing more than insure that they will drive a little more safely, and that they are much more likely to have auto insurance. 

Still it has taken years for California to adopt measures which allow young people who are illegal through no fault of there own to get a driver’s license.  But the day has finally come.

Cedillo's bill, AB 2189, could allow an estimated 450,000 young illegal immigrants to drive legally if they qualify for a federal work-permit program under a new Obama administration policy.

The program grants a two-year deferral from deportation for illegal immigrants who came to the United States before age 16 and are now 30 or younger. They'd have to be attending school or have completed high school or served honorably in the military, and not have a criminal record.

So who would oppose such a program? Well the usual suspects of course.

It's still a highly partisan issue politically, however. Democrats supported Cedillo's bill. Most Republicans didn't.

The legislative debates had a familiar, if less forceful, ring than in the past.

Republicans argued that there's a security risk in granting illegal immigrants IDs; also that we shouldn't be rewarding border-crashers for their illegal behavior.

Of course many of the so-called border crashers in this case were three years old when they did that.  But that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be punished today, at least according to Republicans.

Finally, the Republican Party again issued a statement saying they expected Hispanics to support them in the upcoming elections.  Yes they call themselves Republicans, the rest of us call them Clueless in California.