Wisconsin Denies Invaders Licenses!
Source: jsoonline
Next week, DMV won't have to look awayThis is the most powerful line in the piece...
Come Sunday, some Wisconsin bureaucrats will feel relief. This is a good sign.
The bureaucrats, who work for the state Motor Vehicles Division, are relieved they won't be helping to break the law. Until now, they've been unwillingly doing that, providing driver's licenses, a basis for a legally documented American life, to people here illegally. State law says the agency can't deny a license to someone for being an illegal immigrant, say officials. That ends Sunday.
Wisconsin is one of 10 states that doesn't require proof of lawful presence, as it's known. This has meant that illegal immigrants came here to get a license they couldn't get in Illinois, Minnesota or elsewhere. That's fraud. Gary Guenther, who oversees the DMV's field services, says the agency took steps to cut down on it, investigating addresses and changing procedures. But Sunday's change, ending our status as the Island of Easy Licenses, will do much more, he says.
Then you've got people who genuinely do live in Wisconsin but are illegal immigrants. That the agency had to give them licenses anyhow, helping them stay, grated on some people, including some DMV employees.
Ex-employee Lee Steines said it bothered him enough that he quit his customer service job at the agency a year ago. The question, he said, was, "Am I going to do this, or am I going to face myself in the mirror in the morning?"
He and other agents said they knew they were licensing illegal immigrants. Often, it was when they'd ask the customer for a Social Security number, something the state long has done. There's a form for applicants without one, mainly to handle religious objections. But Steines says he had applicants tell him they didn't have a number because they were in the U.S. illegally. Other agency employees have related similar stories. There wasn't anything they could do.
"It just wasn't right," Steines says. "And people knew in their hearts it wasn't right." *snip*
But the better life is reflected in a pay stub with a Social Security number on it that isn't theirs. Steines says applicants would tell agents that. The pay stub that proved their Wisconsin residency bore a number that would come up invalid if checked. Whatever the intentions, illegal immigration involves fraud.Yep, and good on ya Wisconsin for at least partially rolling up the welcome mat for illegal aliens.
H/T Diggah!
Technorati Tags: illegal immigration, wisconsin, drivers licenses,
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