Make U.S. Driver’s License As Tough To Get As Mexico’s

U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) puts the number of illegal aliens that entered our nation in 2002 at four million. The U.S. Census and CNN tell us 70 percent of the illegals entering our republic come from Mexico. Last year, state Sen. Sam Zamarippa told the Georgia Senate that there were 20 million “undocumented” people in the U.S.

The U.S. Border Patrol reports that the number of illegals crossing our border with Mexico has increased since 9/11 and has jumped 25 percent or more since the president’s amnesty proposal of Jan. 7.

Sen. John Kerry has said that he would pursue an amnesty for illegal aliens in his first 100 days in office if elected president.

Because our own government is allowing our neighbor to the south, and our border with it, to have such an extreme and permanent effect on our nation, it would seem sensible to examine how things are done south of the border.

There is an interesting difference between our two nations regarding border security and interior enforcement of immigration laws.

Mexico has a very strong, visible and unapologetic military presence on its own borders, and an efficient, organized system of finding and removing anyone who is discovered to have gotten past that security.

Here, things are different. It has become somehow politically incorrect even to discuss enforcing our immigration laws, and the president of Mexico has labeled our nation’s half-hearted attempts at border security a “human rights violation.”

One of the more interesting differences between Mexico and the United States is the manner in which driver’s licenses are issued.

To obtain a driver’s license in Baja California, (the Mexican state bordering what is for now, our California) for example, a Mexican citizen is required to be at least 18 years old, provide proof that he can read and write, produce a current health certificate, provide proof of residence, pass a written and road test — and prove his or her identity with an official photo ID.

“Official ID” includes a passport, state or local voter or military ID — but not a Mexican-issued Matricula Consular card.

The Matricula Consular ID is one issued by the government of Mexico to its citizens, through its consulates — some mobile — in our country. It is an effort to provide illegal aliens from that nation with some form of ID, as they lack the valid visa or passport that a legal immigrant would possess. The Matricula Consular is not accepted in most banks in Mexico itself because of its reputation for being easily forged. Ask to see mine.

Another very distinct and notable difference between states in Mexico and our own nation in granting a driver’s license — the de facto national ID card here — is in the requirements for issuing driver’s license to foreign nationals (aliens). In Mexico, one must prove he has entered that sovereign nation legally to be granted the privilege to drive: an official immigration document must be presented before a license is issued.

No proof of legal entry? No driver’s license.

What a concept.

“Dear governor, we demand driver’s licenses for all inhabitants of this state, without considering status! We would like to drive legally!”

That demand was on one of many signs carried last month by a mob of illegal aliens — and those who profit from their presence — at a march at the state Capitol to demand that Georgia lower its standards concerning the requirements to get a driver’s license.

There was a similar march on Tuesday in Doraville — one financed by the National Council of The Race (aka “La Raza”).

Having violated several federal laws by illegally entering our nation and taking American jobs, they are now demanding that we begin to change our state laws to accommodate them.

Also at Tuesday’s march was a determined group of Americans of many ethnicities, including legal immigrants. We were demanding that our laws be enforced, our borders be secured and that our own system for issuing a driver’s license be at least as stringent as that of Third-World Mexico’s.

What a concept.

D.A. King of Marietta is a founder of The American Resistance Foundation, a non-profit national coalition of citizens that actively opposes illegal immigration.