Comments on: Letter From Nashville: Licenses for Illegals? http://www.mainstreetj.com/2006/03/23/297 Politics and Culture Done Just Right Mon, 22 May 2006 20:16:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.2 by: Mickey White http://www.mainstreetj.com/2006/03/23/297#comment-600 Mon, 27 Mar 2006 13:34:09 +0000 http://www.mainstreetj.com/2006/03/23/297#comment-600 How about illegal are breaking the law? How about the fact they are not paying taxes and are consuming tax paid benefits? What if one has an accident, who pays the costs? The free market will determine the cost of the lower paid jobs, either legal citizens and legal immigrants will take the job at the low wadge, or the job will not get done, or the wadge will increase till someone takes the job. Do not reward Illegals, send them home. How about illegal are breaking the law? How about the fact they are not paying taxes and are consuming tax paid benefits? What if one has an accident, who pays the costs?
The free market will determine the cost of the lower paid jobs, either legal citizens and legal immigrants will take the job at the low wadge, or the job will not get done, or the wadge will increase till someone takes the job.
Do not reward Illegals, send them home.

]]> by: melissa laurel http://www.mainstreetj.com/2006/03/23/297#comment-588 Sun, 26 Mar 2006 20:27:20 +0000 http://www.mainstreetj.com/2006/03/23/297#comment-588 What I would like to ask is on a personal note, how do these illegal immigrants gaining driving certificates, directly affect you? Furthermore, if these certificates are being used as a valid form of ID, how does that directly affect you and I? It doesn't. But, I'd imagine you are one of the tax payers that would love to dump your money into the federal prison system to help build more prisons, to facilitate all of the illegal immigrants that are in our country. Rather than let them keep their mimimum wage (and less), jobs that nobody else will take either way. What I would like to ask is on a personal note, how do these illegal immigrants gaining driving certificates, directly affect you? Furthermore, if these certificates are being used as a valid form of ID, how does that directly affect you and I? It doesn’t. But, I’d imagine you are one of the tax payers that would love to dump your money into the federal prison system to help build more prisons, to facilitate all of the illegal immigrants that are in our country. Rather than let them keep their mimimum wage (and less), jobs that nobody else will take either way.

]]> by: Larry http://www.mainstreetj.com/2006/03/23/297#comment-524 Fri, 24 Mar 2006 19:56:40 +0000 http://www.mainstreetj.com/2006/03/23/297#comment-524 "Small business owners say it is becoming increasingly difficult to hire workers, especially at minimum wage, for jobs in agriculture, contracting, and other fields involving manual labor" --- Hmmmmm, pay a higher wage then? <a>Immigration Splits Small Businesses, GOP</a> The Republican Party has always been known as the party of business, but on the contentious issue of immigration it is increasingly at odds with small business. At issue is President Bush's push to change the nation's immigration policy. The centerpiece of his plan is to create a temporary guest-worker status for immigrants who enter the U.S. illegally. That's counter to previous policy, which has always focused on stemming the tide of illegal immigrants. In recent weeks, small business owners in several states have rallied around the president's plan, but Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill oppose the temporary guest-worker policy. They are pushing instead for even tighter controls at the nation's borders. The acrimonious debate could drive a wedge between the GOP and small business groups, which have traditionally supported Republican causes. In California, for example, the state landscape-contractors association and other small business groups are pressuring lawmakers to support the president's plan, according to the Sacramento Bee. Small business owners say it is becoming increasingly difficult to hire workers, especially at minimum wage, for jobs in agriculture, contracting, and other fields involving manual labor. With the economy gaining steam, experts predict the labor market will tighten even further. "I was most shocked at the Republican Party being against small business," landscape-business owner Cynthia Smallwood told the Bee. "They don't get that there is a labor shortage." “Small business owners say it is becoming increasingly difficult to hire workers, especially at minimum wage, for jobs in agriculture, contracting, and other fields involving manual labor”

— Hmmmmm, pay a higher wage then?

Immigration Splits Small Businesses, GOP

The Republican Party has always been known as the party of business, but on the contentious issue of immigration it is increasingly at odds with small business.

At issue is President Bush’s push to change the nation’s immigration policy. The centerpiece of his plan is to create a temporary guest-worker status for immigrants who enter the U.S. illegally. That’s counter to previous policy, which has always focused on stemming the tide of illegal immigrants.

In recent weeks, small business owners in several states have rallied around the president’s plan, but Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill oppose the temporary guest-worker policy. They are pushing instead for even tighter controls at the nation’s borders.

The acrimonious debate could drive a wedge between the GOP and small business groups, which have traditionally supported Republican causes. In California, for example, the state landscape-contractors association and other small business groups are pressuring lawmakers to support the president’s plan, according to the Sacramento Bee.

Small business owners say it is becoming increasingly difficult to hire workers, especially at minimum wage, for jobs in agriculture, contracting, and other fields involving manual labor. With the economy gaining steam, experts predict the labor market will tighten even further.

“I was most shocked at the Republican Party being against small business,” landscape-business owner Cynthia Smallwood told the Bee. “They don’t get that there is a labor shortage.”

]]> by: Mickey White http://www.mainstreetj.com/2006/03/23/297#comment-520 Fri, 24 Mar 2006 14:43:04 +0000 http://www.mainstreetj.com/2006/03/23/297#comment-520 It is good that you did not have to give your SSN for your pilots certificate, the SSN is only for Tax Purposes.... If only we could get the number off of the voter registration cards... It is good that you did not have to give your SSN for your pilots certificate, the SSN is only for Tax Purposes…. If only we could get the number off of the voter registration cards…

]]> by: Larry http://www.mainstreetj.com/2006/03/23/297#comment-518 Fri, 24 Mar 2006 14:28:52 +0000 http://www.mainstreetj.com/2006/03/23/297#comment-518 " ... these certificates are indeed being used as valid identification in Tennessee, despite large type on the certificate stating, This is Not a Proper ID." You can't protect people from their own stupidity. If someone accept it as an ID, that's his/her own fault. The logic still stands ... a Driver's Certificate is just that ... a certificate to drive! In fact, I would like for US citizens to have the option of getting a certificate to drive that isn't an ID! I have plenty of gov't issued ID. I don't need a driver's license to double as an ID. The fact of the matter is that illegals are here and they are driving. As a former law enforcment officer, I can tell what happens when you pull over an illegal driving a car. If the person has no driver's license or certificate and no other form of ID, then the person is usually placed under arrest. The illegal is taken to jail. That took me out of my patrol area for about an hour ... so I couldn't respond to any crimes during that time. The county spends money to process, house, and feed the illegal. If the person has never been arrested, it usually takes 2-3 days to identify and process him (all on the county's tab). If the illegal isn't wanted for any crime, them he goes before the judge, pays the fine for driving without a license and walks out the door. The INS isn't interested. They told us not bother them unless it was a felony crime. Are those with the driving certificates getting insurance? I don't know. I can tell that those without sure aren't! When I got my private pilot's certificate, I wasn't required to give a SSN. It was a certificate to fly ... not an ID! In fact, it doesn't even have my picture on it. If you want to get a handle on illegal immigration, do so by deporting them ... which is a federal job. Fiddling with the driver's certificate isn't going to make a difference on that front. ” … these certificates are indeed being used as valid identification in Tennessee, despite large type on the certificate stating, This is Not a Proper ID.”

You can’t protect people from their own stupidity. If someone accept it as an ID, that’s his/her own fault.

The logic still stands … a Driver’s Certificate is just that … a certificate to drive!

In fact, I would like for US citizens to have the option of getting a certificate to drive that isn’t an ID! I have plenty of gov’t issued ID. I don’t need a driver’s license to double as an ID.

The fact of the matter is that illegals are here and they are driving. As a former law enforcment officer, I can tell what happens when you pull over an illegal driving a car.

If the person has no driver’s license or certificate and no other form of ID, then the person is usually placed under arrest. The illegal is taken to jail. That took me out of my patrol area for about an hour … so I couldn’t respond to any crimes during that time. The county spends money to process, house, and feed the illegal. If the person has never been arrested, it usually takes 2-3 days to identify and process him (all on the county’s tab). If the illegal isn’t wanted for any crime, them he goes before the judge, pays the fine for driving without a license and walks out the door.

The INS isn’t interested. They told us not bother them unless it was a felony crime.

Are those with the driving certificates getting insurance? I don’t know. I can tell that those without sure aren’t!

When I got my private pilot’s certificate, I wasn’t required to give a SSN. It was a certificate to fly … not an ID! In fact, it doesn’t even have my picture on it.

If you want to get a handle on illegal immigration, do so by deporting them … which is a federal job. Fiddling with the driver’s certificate isn’t going to make a difference on that front.

]]> by: Donna Locke http://www.mainstreetj.com/2006/03/23/297#comment-493 Thu, 23 Mar 2006 21:53:00 +0000 http://www.mainstreetj.com/2006/03/23/297#comment-493 When the bill that changed Tennessee driver's license law was moving in 2001, I, and others, warned every single Tennessee legislator that the bill would allow illegal aliens to get driver's licenses -- the bill's purpose, which no one could deny -- and would make Tennessee a magnet for illegal aliens. We provided a great deal of information that was ignored. The top three Tenn. legislators who tried to stop the licensing to illegal aliens were Donna Rowland, Marsha Blackburn, and Mae Beavers, all of them Republicans. They did have support from some other legislators, even more after the law was passed. Blackburn is now in Congress. Rowland and Beavers continue to press on this issue at the state level. Several Memphis-area Republican legislators are now in the forefront of the attempt to demagnetize Tennessee to illegal immigration. We believe the Memphis-area Democrats are ready to do the same, paralleling the bipartisan cooperation on this issue in Georgia: http://tinyurl.com/hjoeq Donna Locke Tennesseans for Immigration Control and Reform When the bill that changed Tennessee driver’s license law was moving in 2001, I, and others, warned every single Tennessee legislator that the bill would allow illegal aliens to get driver’s licenses — the bill’s purpose, which no one could deny — and would make Tennessee a magnet for illegal aliens. We provided a great deal of information that was ignored.

The top three Tenn. legislators who tried to stop the licensing to illegal aliens were Donna Rowland, Marsha Blackburn, and Mae Beavers, all of them Republicans. They did have support from some other legislators, even more after the law was passed.

Blackburn is now in Congress. Rowland and Beavers continue to press on this issue at the state level. Several Memphis-area Republican legislators are now in the forefront of the attempt to demagnetize Tennessee to illegal immigration. We believe the Memphis-area Democrats are ready to do the same, paralleling the bipartisan cooperation on this issue in Georgia:

http://tinyurl.com/hjoeq

Donna Locke
Tennesseans for Immigration Control and Reform

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