Editorial: Drivers’ License Bill: Compromise or Blow Our Economy and Public Safety?
February 14, 2013
New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez is floundering. She never separated her political operation from her government operation relying on “top advisor”, Jay McCleskey, to run both for her.
McCleskey crafted “a my way or the highway” approach for Martinez to govern by. However, this approach has failed both in the legislature and in the mid-term election.
Backpedaling, in order to soften her image, Martinez supports a “compromise” bill from conservative legislators in the senate. The compromise recognizes that the Dream Act executive order by President Obama ended all hopes of eliminating drivers’ licenses for all undocumented immigrants.
But the compromise fails to address several issues that must be faced because in its current form it will cause serious problems for our state.
In an interview with Steve Terrell of the Santa Fe New Mexican Marcela Diaz of Somos Un Pueblo Unido nailed it, “this so-called compromise is an insult to those who are trying to create fair and workable solutions that integrate immigrant families into our state’s public safety and anti-[drunken-driving] efforts.”
The compromise bill still presents a major public safety problem. Drivers who are forced back into the shadows that will drive regardless of whether they hold a license because they still need to work. A study by the California Motor Vehicle Division has already proven that unlicensed drivers are far more dangerous to the public than licensed drivers.
Police also cannot determine if an unlicensed driver has an outstanding arrest warrant since an unlicensed driver can easily lie about his identity with no license to run through the NCIC system. Traffic stops have always been a tool that allowed police to locate and arrest those with outstanding warrants.
It will also create an odd dynamic of allowing the children of those living in New Mexico to drive but preventing their parents from doing so.
So if a teenager’s appendix bursts in the middle of the night and the family lives far from ambulance service, Martinez would require the teenager to driver herself to the hospital. That doesn’t make much sense does it?
The bill would also put undue financial burdens on both immigrant families and our economy at exactly the wrong time. Martinez has been an abysmal failure at economic development. Through revoking drivers’ licenses she is in fact trying to eliminate jobs and make life more difficult for undocumented workers in the hopes of forcing “self-deportation”. Martinez has embraced Romney’s ludicrous idea that became the laughingstock of the presidential campaign.
Our legislators should not let Martinez make New Mexico more dangerous and economically devastated than it already is.
_______________________________________________________________
February 14, 2013
New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez is floundering. She never separated her political operation from her government operation relying on “top advisor”, Jay McCleskey, to run both for her.
McCleskey crafted “a my way or the highway” approach for Martinez to govern by. However, this approach has failed both in the legislature and in the mid-term election.
Backpedaling, in order to soften her image, Martinez supports a “compromise” bill from conservative legislators in the senate. The compromise recognizes that the Dream Act executive order by President Obama ended all hopes of eliminating drivers’ licenses for all undocumented immigrants.
But the compromise fails to address several issues that must be faced because in its current form it will cause serious problems for our state.
In an interview with Steve Terrell of the Santa Fe New Mexican Marcela Diaz of Somos Un Pueblo Unido nailed it, “this so-called compromise is an insult to those who are trying to create fair and workable solutions that integrate immigrant families into our state’s public safety and anti-[drunken-driving] efforts.”
The compromise bill still presents a major public safety problem. Drivers who are forced back into the shadows that will drive regardless of whether they hold a license because they still need to work. A study by the California Motor Vehicle Division has already proven that unlicensed drivers are far more dangerous to the public than licensed drivers.
Police also cannot determine if an unlicensed driver has an outstanding arrest warrant since an unlicensed driver can easily lie about his identity with no license to run through the NCIC system. Traffic stops have always been a tool that allowed police to locate and arrest those with outstanding warrants.
It will also create an odd dynamic of allowing the children of those living in New Mexico to drive but preventing their parents from doing so.
So if a teenager’s appendix bursts in the middle of the night and the family lives far from ambulance service, Martinez would require the teenager to driver herself to the hospital. That doesn’t make much sense does it?
The bill would also put undue financial burdens on both immigrant families and our economy at exactly the wrong time. Martinez has been an abysmal failure at economic development. Through revoking drivers’ licenses she is in fact trying to eliminate jobs and make life more difficult for undocumented workers in the hopes of forcing “self-deportation”. Martinez has embraced Romney’s ludicrous idea that became the laughingstock of the presidential campaign.
Our legislators should not let Martinez make New Mexico more dangerous and economically devastated than it already is.
_______________________________________________________________