Why the whole "war against illegal immigrants" impacts us all

[Brian_Expat]

Even if you aren't a believer in illegal immigration (I certainly am not), you should be concerned about supposed measures to block illegal immigrants from getting driver's licences and such.

For instance, when I moved to California several years ago, I tried to trade in my Massachusetts licence for a California one.

IMPOSSIBLE!

I had to present a birth certificate, Social Security card AND passport or other photo ID to prove my nationality.

Now I have a US passport. With that document, I can enter US consulates and embassies around the world, invoke the protection of the US government abroad, enter dozens of countries without visas, enter the United States (and exit) whenever I please for any reason, and gain access to US employment and federal benefits.

But I cannot get a friggin' state driver's licence with just my US passport?!? It's "not enough" to prove CITIZENSHIP?!?

Since I don't have a copy of my birth certificate (who does when you're a frequent international traveller and a passport is more reliable and less forgeable), I ended up just keeping my Massachusetts licence the entire year I was in California.

So yes, the "measures to protect us from illegal immigrants" are ineffective, and do little more than make it difficult for law-abiding US citizens to get their certification and services. Honestly, is an "illegal immigrant" going to be able to present a US passport, with its many anti-fraud elements, in order to get a California licence? No way. It's just hysteria designed to clamp down on the civil rights of the rest of us so that some bureaucrat can hiss "YOUR PAPERS ARE NOT IN ORDER!"

[Brian_Expat]

1. bumpity bump bump bump! n/t