Proposed Legislation Restricts Illegal Aliens' Use Of Driver's Licenses

The Washington Times reports that House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. introduced a bill to restrict illegal aliens' ability to obtain and use driver's licenses. According to the Times, Mr. Sensenbrenner's new bill includes four of the provisions that he fought for but which were dropped from the final intelligence overhaul bill last month:

The bill would fill a gap in the fence on the U.S.-Mexico border near San Diego, would extend the law so that terrorism-related grounds for excluding someone from entering the United States also become grounds for deportation for those already here and would revamp the asylum system to make it easier for judges to deny a claim for asylum.

But its major focus is to crack down on illegal aliens' ability to obtain and use driver's licenses.

The measure requires that any driver's license used as a form of identification to a federal official, such as a Transportation Security Administration screener at an airport, meet national standards that include a check on whether the holder is in the country legally.

The bill doesn't force states to change their laws, but makes driver's licenses from such states inadmissible for federal identification purposes.

The provisions of Sensenbrenner's bill are the same as those approved by the House last year in the House's version of intelligence reform. The Senate refused to include those provisions resulting in a standoff that nearly caused the reform law to die.

This is a step in the right direction. Illegal aliens should not be provided with a drivers license. As Sensenbrenner said:

The 9/11 hijackers could have used their passports to board the plane, but only one did. And why was that? Those murderers chose our driver's licenses and state IDs as a form of identification because these documents allowed them to blend in and not raise suspicion or concern.

Sensenbrenner's bill has 114 Republican co-sponsors and one Democrat, Rep. Lincoln Davis of Tennessee. A similar bill will be introduced in the Senate by Senator Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican.

Of course nothing ensures passage of Sensenbrenner's bill.

Representative Jane Harman of California said Mr. Sensenbrenner's bill is not needed:

She said the bill passed in December does enough by requiring states to create tamper-proof driver's licenses and allowing the Transportation Security Administration to decide what documents can be used by passengers to board airplanes.

Then there is always the immigration advocacy groups that oppose everything that would restrict anything an illegal alien could do oppose the bill. The Times reports that some of these advocacy groups argue that Sensenbrenner's bill is a broad-brush approach that groups most illegal aliens together with terrorists.

They just don't get it. Those that broke laws and entered the U.S. illegally don't have, and shouldn't have, the same rights and benefits as those who have been given the privilege to be allowed into the U.S.

This post has been linked to the Beltway Traffic Jam.