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Originally published in the November 21, 2004 issue of the Alamance Independent
DUI SCHOOLS FOR HISPANIC ILLEGALS
By Mark Andrew Dwyer -- November 24, 2004If you think that the open border lobby and Latino activists reached the apogee of absurdity when they argued that giving driver's licenses to illegal aliens would improve public safety, think twice. In Gainsville, Georgia, there is a Spanish-only school where the illegal aliens caught driving while drunk are being sent in order to make of them "safer drivers". I'm not kidding, you may read about this in an article "Licensing illegals drives lively debate" published recently by the Gainsville Times (see [1]).
Gainsville's City Hall official named Giovanni Flores (names like Flores, Gonzales, Martinez, and Torres must be traditional American family names in Georgia, I suppose) who helps to manage the school was quoted saying that "about half of the 20-30 people who take a regular Spanish-only class at the Gainesville DUI school [...] don't have valid licenses." He estimates that "thousands of illegal immigrants [are] behind the wheel in Georgia, usually with no insurance and little or no training" and "wants the state to allow them driver's licenses." His rationale is simple: "They're going to drive [whether they have a driver's license or not] because that's a need for them." As if Latino illegal aliens' needs were the supreme law of the land in the U.S.
Flores's rationale is very typical of many Latino activists: superficially logical and straightforward but, in fact, absurd and misleading, like their deceitful claim that giving driver's licenses to illegals won't "automatically" make them American citizens. (See my earlier column [2] for more examples of this kind of nonsense.) It shows that reason and common sense is something that you cannot really expect of them when the "right" of their compatriots to invade and settle their neighbor country, America, are at stake, and that they are determined to use their positions in state and local governments to advance that cause. Those who put Floreses, Gonzaleses, Martinezes, and Torreses in charge of governmental agencies might think that they were the most qualified to manage relations with growing Latino population, but it's equally futile (and illogical) an expectation as would be appointing Osama bin Laden a security czar because his first-hand expertise in terrorism could be used to prevent future terrorist attacks against America.
Well, giving illegals driver's licenses won't make us any safer than issuing checkbooks to bank robbers or condoms to rapists instead of sending them to where they belong. They will just drive (or steal or rape) more. It's perfectly conceivable that once an illegal alien has a driver's license, he will be less fearful of being deported because of violating the law (and this does include driving under influence) thus becoming more likely to commit more violations. And that's just one of many negative effects of licensing the illegals. Driver's licenses are considered breeding documents that may allow one to successfully pretend of being an American citizen. This is particularly true under the so-called motor voter law that mandates sending voter registration forms to the newly licensed individuals, so that would be practically left to illegal alien's discretion whether to vote in state and federal elections or not.
Some skeptics argue that catching and deporting illegals that don't commit any visible violations of the law is very difficult, if at all possible. Some others claim that it would erode our liberties if we allowed for searches and sweeps of illegal aliens. But illegal aliens that are driving without a driver's license, particularly while drunk, should be arrested on the spot and deported expeditiously right after getting sober. The nations, like Mexico, that are most notorious for sending them to America should be punished with immigration moratoria. This, and not sending alien offenders to driving schools, will greatly improve the public safety.
We may be stuck for life with domestic offenders, but there is no good reason for us, Americans, to tolerate alien lawbreakers in our country. Oddly enough, many law enforcement officers will not even ask about the immigration status of illegal drivers, even drunk drivers (for instance, according to [1], Gainsville's police don't collect "ethnic or residency data on who is cited"), and this regrettable practice clearly goes against the very public safety. Once in a while, someone gets killed by a drunk, unlicensed, illegal alien driver, but even that doesn't seem to discourage some law enforcement officers from looking the other way when they come across one.
As to Giovanni Flores, his twisted logic of absurdity goes one step further. According to [1], "he notes that any illegal immigrant channeled through a D.U.I. or defensive driving class pays the state-mandated fees required for anyone caught driving drunk or drugged," including the "$210 to reinstate their right to drive." So, in his opinion, at least those illegals that went through the DUI school should be allowed to get "their" driver's licenses. And that, I guess, comes out of his sincere public safety concern.
[2] IT'S ALL ABOUT SAFETY, STUPID http://americanpatrol.com/GUESTCOLUMNS/DWYER/CedilloDLs4IAs030213.html
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