Cartas al editor

Letters to the Editor

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I would like the opportunity to clear up a small misunderstanding on the part of Rep. Pedro Marin and Sen. Sam Zamarripa. As an integral part of our government, both should know that having a driver's license is not "everyone's right" of anyone. Having a driver's license is a privilege which must be earned. It is the right of all United States citizens to be protected from these undocumented immigrants who are illegal state residents.

Protecting us as American citizens would mean deporting undocumented immigrants rather than giving them a driver's license to allow them to drive back and forth to the jobs they are robbing many United States citizens the right of having. Many, if not most, are sending a large portion of their earnings back to their country of origin, robbing the American economy of much needed cash flow. If these immigrants want to work and live here, they need to be documented, legal, English-Speaking immigrants. Under these conditions they are welcome in America, otherwise, deportation should be the only right any undocumented immigrant has in this country. The legal immigrants in this country put an extraordinary effort into becoming United States citizens, and handing out a driver's license to every illegal would make that effort on their part seem meaningless and needless.

-- Mark Jenkins

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Interesting how you refer to them only as "undocumented immigrants" instead of "illegal aliens." If you are here illegally you are breaking the law. Why in the world should we reward criminals who shouldn't even be here by giving them a license? I have no problem with anyone who is here legally getting a driver's license. If you go through the correct process to come here, you should be rewarded with the same privileges that citizens receive. Driving is a privilege, not a right.

-- Name Withheld

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For those of you who decided to vote against allowing undocumented immigrants to have driver's licenses in the current onlineathens.com poll, I suggest you become a tad more acquainted with the facts of the issue. Regardless of your position on the steady wave of undoc-umented workers who pour into the United States, it's just stupid not to permit these people licenses and car insurance. When an undocumented immigrant hits you, the costs will be incurred by you in most cases. I also suspect some undocumented workers (and citizens without licenses for that matter) may be more inclined to flee the scene of an accident knowing they are driving illegally. It's just common sense folks, these people help the Georgia economy in a massive way, pay taxes just like you (without access to most of the commensurate services that come with paying taxes, I might add), and they are going to drive. Since they are going to drive anyway, it is obvious that they should be required to have a license and car insurance. Giving undocumented workers driver's licenses doesn't make them any more legal -- it just protects them and you. Think about it.

-- Paul Duncan

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Thank you for raising your voice on this issue that has awaken the conscience of many, now committed activists, to the well-being of our immigrants. Hopefully too, we can start to inform, educate and persuade those reluctant to see the need for this growing segment of the population to obtain driver's licenses for safety's sake and for justice's sake.

Unfortunately, in persuading the un-convinced, the ar-guments to be wielded will say little about the hardships and anguish endured by those unable to move around when needed, from going to work to go to market and buy groceries; to making it to doctors's appointments. Because "they" are the strangers, there is a tendency to regard "them" as less than deserving in the common experiences of everyday ordinary living conditions the rest of us enjoy. Thus, sometimes, in truth, the homeland security issue is less potent than the deep-seated dismissive or hostile attitudes which proclaim that a set of rules on border crossing between two friendly countries is more important that the humanitarian impulse to do good, protect the weak and helpless and be fair to those who live among as they build up our economy and make their fiscal contributions to society.

-- Tere Pagés

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Enrique Carrion's editorial in the October Athens Eco Latino listed several powerful reasons in favor of issuing driver's licenses to all immigrants in Georgia: supporting national security efforts, driving insured vehicles, and ensuring that traffic rules are followed. There is, however, a key aspect that was not mentioned in his note and that is almost always brought up by those who oppose or are hesitant about the issue: the concern that the immigrants' illegal status could be removed by them receiving driver's licenses and that they might even exercise citizen's rights such as voting.

An illegal immigrant with a Georgia driver's license is still illegal. Having a driver's license does not change anything in relation to immigration status. In fact, the House Bill 578 introduced by Rep. Pedro Marin, which is mentioned in Carrion's note, states specifically in Paragraph 4 of its Section 1: "Nothing in this law or resolution shall conflict with or supplant laws or policies of the United States government, the United States Department of Immigration and Naturalization Services, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of State, or the Internal Revenue Service. This legislation complies with U.S. Treasury Department regulations regarding valid identifications from noncitizens that are acceptable to financial institutions."

Moreover, the driver's license proposed under House Bill 578 is designated as "special restricted" and as stated in Paragraph 5B of Section 2 of the bill, it will contain a printed notice that states "A restricted license issued under this Code section shall not confer rights of citizenship upon the holder of such license". Issuing driver's licenses to all immigrants, regardless of their visa status, is clearly a win-win situation, and the number of states acknowledging that keeps growing.

-- Armando Tasistro