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Are Democrats Inviting Illegals Into Colorado?

Ross Kaminsky - 4/30/2007

On roughly party-line votes, the Colorado State House and Senate have both passed HB 1313 which will soon go to Governor Bill "Tax Hike" Ritter. It is hard to know what to make of the bill. In a way, it seems shockingly audacious, even for Democrats who work in the sanctuary city of Denver: It strikes language from the law which prevented the Department of Motor Vehicles from issuing licenses to illegal aliens. But then it appears to replace the language with a squishy version of a similar prohibition. Since it is very hard to understand why the Democrats would make such a change, I must assume they are up to no good. Democrats nationwide hope not only to make illegal immigrants suddenly become legal, but they also hope to give the illegals voting rights, assuming (probably correctly) that they will vote Democrat.

Some of the language appears intentionally deceptive: While the bill strikes language explicitly blocking the Department from issuing licenses to illegal aliens, it then adds language requiring proof of legal presence in the country with such proof being in the form of various types of documents, from foreign passports (with appropriate immigration documents) to a Colorado tax return with W2 to a signed Social Security Card. (Two documents are necessary for "proof".)

Where it gets tricky is that the bill allows the Department to establish "REASONABLE EXCEPTION PROCEDURES IN ORDER TO ENABLE PERSONS TO ESTABLISH IDENTITY, AGE, AND LAWFUL PRESENCE IN THE UNITED STATES THROUGH PAGE 5-HOUSE BILL 07-1313 ANY RELEVANT AND REASONABLY RELIABLE EVIDENCE..."

The bill as it is currently written seems to require enough documentation to prove legality, but it leaves open the door for manipulation.

Here is part of the bill, which you can see in its entirety at this LINK:

42-2-104. Licenses issued - denied. (3) The department shall not
issue any license to:

(d) Any person not submitting proof of age, or LAWFUL PRESENCE WITHIN THE UNITED STATES, AND proof of identity, as PROVIDED BY LAW OR as required by SECTION 42-2-104.3;

And further down in the bill, we find the following more disturbing strike-throughs:

SECTION 3. 42-2-302 (2) (a), Colorado Revised Statutes, is
amended to read:

42-2-302. Department may issue - limitations - rules.
(2) (a) (I) The department shall NOT issue an identification card UNLESS THE APPLICANT SUBMITS THE PROOF OF AGE, IDENTITY, AND LAWFUL PRESENCE THAT IS REQUIRED FOR THE ISSUANCE OF A DRIVER'S LICENCE OR AN INSTRUCTION PERMIT BY SECTION 42-2-104.3.

(II) The department may assess a fee under section 42-2-306 (1)(b) if the department is required to undertake additional efforts to verify the identity of the applicant. IF THE APPLICANT IS DENIED AN IDENTIFICATION CARD BY THE DEPARTMENT, SECTION 42-2-104.5 SHALL APPLY.

I must say that I'm somewhat confused by what the legislature is trying to do here. What is clear is that they are removing explicit prohibition against issuing drivers licenses to illgal aliens and replacing it with language that has wiggle room. This is not a "housekeeping" measure, intended to add clarity to existing law. Instead it is quite the opposite.

Now, I am not on the Tancredo anti-immigrant wing of the Republican Party. I value immigrants and immigration. But, as Milton Friedman correctly made clear, you can not have open borders if you have an open welfare state. Or, as I've read elsewhere, "rather than build a wall around our country, build a wall around our welfare system".

I do not begrudge immigrants for wanting to come here. I do begrudge our nativist politicians who are damaging our country by not fixing our visa system and increasing the number of available work visas for people of all skill levels. I also do not believe the arguments that immigrants are a net negative for employment in the country. If that were true, we would not have unemployment levels at historic lows (and having been low for years.)

So, my problem with illegal immigration is the first word, not the second. Anecdotally, it seems that illegals get away with traffic violations more often than Americans do, simply because police departments can't or won't deal with the hassle of working with the federal government or getting involved with deportation. This leaves illegals being the source of many well-publicized fatal car accidents. Yes, this is only one area in which illegals have an impact on society, but it is an important one and, politically speaking, it is one of the most visible.

One of my biggest problems, however, with illegal immigration comes when liberals in government, i.e. Democrats in the US Senate, want illegals to be able to collect Social Security. Social Security is already going to be bankrupt, even without giving non-Americans the right to suck tax dollars from citizens. But if the Democrats are willing to go there, is there any doubt that they will institutionalize the "right" of illegals to get medical care without paying for it? This is truly the risk to our country from illegals. It may be strong medicine (pun intended), but we must do much more to make our state unfriendly to illegal aliens until they are no longer able to claim benefits at the expense of taxpayers. Once there is a wall around the welfare state, you can open the border of the physical state and you will find a flow of immigrants which is much less than it has been in recent decades, and which will be regulated by market forces of supply and demand for jobs rather than supply of our tax dollars and their demand for free "public" services.

This rather odd bill which is on its way to the Governor's desk seems clearly a step in the wrong direction.