Illinois Becomes Largest State to Give Licenses to Illegals – With No Safeguards Against Fraud

In the race to become America’s top “Sanctuary State” for illegal aliens, we have a new leader.  Illinois has (temporarily) bested California for that title, and has done so by putting public safety at greater risk.

Both states have in-state tuition for illegal aliens. Both states fight I.C.E. every step of the way to keep illegal from being deported or even discovered. But now, with its Governor’s signature tonight, only Illinois permits hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens to obtain official drivers licenses.

Gov. Pat Quinn (D) hailed the law as an important step for “immigrant rights” in Illinois, but even the left-leaning Associated Press pointed out both the problems with security, as well as the insane rationale used to pass the law:

However, the law’s opponents have pointed to hundreds of fraudulent cases in New Mexico, Washington and Utah after those states began giving illegal immigrants permission to drive. Illinois will not require applicants to be fingerprinted, for fear that would discourage immigrants from applying.

“How many people would apply for this document knowing that fingerprints will be going to (federal authorities)? Probably not all that many,” said Fred Tsao, policy director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, a driving-force behind the measure.

Say what? No fingerprints? That’s right…despite the fact that the vast majority of identity theft in the United states is committed by illegal aliens, Illinois will only require a photograph to be taken. Of course this was done to make sure that the fingerprints would not be sent to the FBI (as is typically done), which uses the Secure Communities program to match those prints with the ICE/DHS database to determine if that person has used any (or perhaps multiple) false identities in other states, , have been previously (and perhaps multiple times) been deported – which would make re-entry a felony, or are wanted for a serious crime or are on a terrorist watch list.

In other words, Illinois’ new law has zero safeguards against fraud, and put the public at great risk. And Illinois KNEW this when they passed their law – because the 3 other states which also allow it have provided cautionary tales for how not to do it, and Illinois ignored them.

For example those other state laws have been horribly abused. An Associated Press investigation last year found that illegal aliens tried to game the system to obtain a license. In one instance, 48 foreign-born individuals claimed to live at a smoke shop in Albuquerque to fulfill a residency condition. Authorities also busted a fraud ring last year that forged documents for illegal immigrants to use after driving from as far as Illinois and North Carolina to obtain a New Mexico license.

That is why Republican Gov. Susana Martinez has tried repeatedly for years to repeal the decade-old measure – but the Democrat Legislature has rejected such efforts.

Utah’s requirements were originally lax, but they amended the law  in 2011 to require illegal immigrants to be fingerprinted, and mandates that the state notify I.C.E. if an applicant’s fingerprint check yields a felony on record. If the applicant has a misdemeanor warrant outstanding, the state must notify the agency that is seeking the person’s arrest.

And even in Illinois, local law enforcement officials pleaded in vain with legislators in favor of fingerprinting: ”We could see if they have committed a crime; it could be a crime in another state or it could be a crime in their home country,” said John Kennedy, executive director of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police.

The law is also a threat to national security. One of the reasons they implemented the Federal REAL ID law and proof of citizenship into state IDs and licenses was in response to how easy Mohamed Atta and his crew obtained IDs, accessed flight schools and all the other blatant preparations they made. It is now harder for a born or naturalized citizen to get a license than it is for a terrorist masquerading as am illegal from central America.

But for amnesty advocates, any possibility of an illegal alien being detained or deported is not worth the risk of safeguards to protect the public from identity thieves, felons, gangbangers or terrorists. This is what it has come to in Obama’s dangerous immigration anarchy.

Finally, the Illinois law was sold to gullible Republicans promising that uninsured illegal aliens would obtain auto insurance en masse, improving public safety and driver accountability:

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Edward Acevedo, a Chicago Democrat, said state roads will be safer because illegal immigrants will…be required to purchase insurance. Tsao’s organization estimates uninsured (Illinois) illegal immigrant drivers cause $64 million in damage claims each year, an expense currently covered by increased premiums.

But such promises have proven to be lies. New Mexico’s law has been in effect for 10 years now – after being sold with a similar insurance pitch by then-Governor Bill Richardson.  A recent study of uninsured drivers in New Mexico now shows the hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens never became insured:

In 2000, before the law went into effect, 26.3 percent of New Mexico drivers were uninsured. In 2008, a year before Richardson left office, that number had jumped to 29.5 percent, making the state number one in the country for uninsured drivers. By 2009, the last year figures were available, the state dropped to second place with 25.7 percent of its drivers uninsured.

NO change. A New Mexico law sold on lies that put the public at risk. A 10-year track record of fraud, and a Governor desperately trying to repeal it. And Illinois ignored it all to hand an estimated 250,000 illegals drivers licenses.

Why? Votes, of course. Once illegals have a drivers license, they have their ticket to vote illegally in municipalities with lax or non-existent Voter ID standards. And NO state has more lax voter standards than Illinois.

The “Chicago Way” wins again, and America loses.