Illegal Immigrant Driving Certificates

The state of Tennessee allows illegal immigrants with proof of Tennessee residency to obtain state driving certificates. Now authorities are finding those certificates being sold on the black market, and shuttle services carrying illegal immigrants from other states in order to obtain these certificates.

Also, while the certificates are not intended for identification, banks have accepted them as ID. They appear to have been used in other cases for identification purposes.

The attorney for one of the women arrested for driving the shuttles says his client is not a terrorist and "the government is making too much of the problem." I find this defense sort of odd. Usually when someone gets caught breaking the law they plead insanity, or perhaps they even plead the fifth. Now alleged criminals are going to plead non terrorist as if not being a terrorist makes it ok to be an accomplice in crime.

This line from the New York Times article almost knocked me out of my chair. "Some say the problem is not the law, but the enforcement." In other words, this law would be just fine if officials made sure people who live outside of Tennessee were not taking advantage.

This story proves that when you make up a law to help justify an illegal activity, you encourage more illegal activity. If Tennessee wants to stop "outsiders" from taking advantage of this law, they only have to commit to putting handcuffs on anyone (from inside or outside the state) who shows up to get a certificate. They are after all illegal immigrants.

Update 2/1/06 Independent Conservative describes "how wireless companies are finding a new customer base in the immigrant market." The post also describes how illegal immigration will have a long term effect on how companies do business and how this will be felt by tax payers.