Illegal Immigrants Don't Deserve A License

By: Dan Cunningham

Posted: 12/6/07

There is some division on the concept of allowing illegal immigrants to receive driver's licenses. The sub-parties on each side can be classified in one of two groups; idiots and everyone else. Hillary Clinton proudly displayed her ability to not pick a side during one of the primary debates, making her the only common ground between the two groups. Perhaps this stands as common sense, but providing licenses to illegal immigrants is an ineffective safety policy, it is offensive to lower class workers and detracts from debates on legitimate immigration policies.

When a citizen passes a driver's exam, he or she is provided with a plastic card with their photo on it. There's no magic fairy dust bestowing a better driving ability-just a card. Illegal immigrants that get pulled over for speeding or reckless driving have a lot more to worry about other than not having a license. In fact, all an illegal alien needs is $500 to pay off the charge at the time of being pulled over and they can drive off to break the law even more. In the end, the only safety an immigrant receives from having a license is the ability to act like a citizen in the face of a police officer.

Of all policies to help liberalize immigration in the United States, a driver's license is the least significant or effective. A license contains a number, a picture, a name and an address. While immigrants may be absolutely fine with the first three, an address is the most important and incriminating. Any illegal immigrant with half a brain understands that-in the eyes of federal law-they are not wanted. If you live in a country that will cast you away if they find you, there is no reason you would submit accurate data, if any at all, on your whereabouts to any level of government. Then again, if they are foolish enough to submit an accurate address to the DMV, maybe the Republicans are right on trying to send back this generation's wave of illegal immigrants.

Consider what a driver's license for illegal immigrants says to the poorest classes of society. This license would be conferred to a group of people who live outside of both the costs and benefits of the government. Illegals do not pay income taxes, they receive free medical care because they are untraceable citizens and their children can have a free education thanks to the local tax dollars of the working citizens and federal law. This creates a class of citizens that, after factoring in benefits, lives a substantially wealthier life than the lowest quintile of workers. All they have to do to stay that way is not get arrested. To give a license to this group is to validate the support of a black market class on the backs of the hard working taxpayers beneath them.

Legitimate policies can deal with the actual problems that illegal immigration causes. The group subverts the government by not having an enforceable tax code and is granted benefits that everyone receives as a result of the Entitlement Era. So, a new policy correcting either of these problems would be optimal in society. There are at least two extreme options that could be considered. The first would be to hire more border patrol and build thicker fences. However, if people want to enter the country badly enough, physical barriers will not stop them. Building walls and fortifying borders is implicitly flawed and will inevitably fail as immigration policy.

The second option is to make all of the illegal immigrants into citizens and then enforce the law. This is a simple and favorable concept, but the conservatives seem to feel that this is incredibly dangerous. This would be ironic, seeing as how the current generation's immigrants are primarily Catholic and voting more conservatively in elections. In fact, in the 2004 election, President Bush received far more support from the Hispanic community than he had four years prior. The onset of a more conservative Hispanic population is strongly correlated to the voter turnout of new immigrants. Even more ironic is the fact that the Democrats are pushing an immigration policy that undermines their long run success in elections.

Both attrition from immigration and open admittance are extreme long run goals in policy. Seeing as how those two options are unacceptable to the far left and right, there is a need for a policy that indirectly affects illegal immigrants. The poor need a policy that will put them, economically, on a level plain with those who are here illegally. A driver's license for illegal immigrants serves as a direct statement to the poor that their needs for a better life are less important than those of someone who is not a citizen. Those who supported any policy that would give a license to illegal immigrants should be ashamed of themselves for putting the needs of the black market above the needs of the lower class.

Staff columnist Daniel Cunningham is a 7th-semester economics major. He can be reached at Daniel.Cunningham@UConn.edu.