Blog# 8: Let Undocumented Drivers Drive Legally

In her blog “Stage Seven: a Common Sense Bill” Helen comments on an article published in Texas Tribune that talks about a bill that will allow  immigrants to get driver’s permits after passing a driving test, going though background checks, submitting fingerprints and paying about $150 in fees.  In light of the ongoing immigration reform debate in Washington, I feel this is an important topic to comment on.

While Helen wrote in favour of the bill that would allow undocumented immigrants to legally register their vehicles and obtain auto insurance, there are few points she might have added to strengthen her support and refute opponents’ arguments.  For example, missing in her  blog from the Texas Tribune’s article is an important comments of Norm Adams, the Republican co-founder of Texans for Sensible Immigration Policy, that how several local business are facing challenges because some of their undocumented employees not  able to renew their commercial driver’s licenses.  This bill will allow more legal and insured drivers in Texas highways and hence enhance the safely of our roads.

Helen didn’t mention that the amount of money that will be raised from the fines can be used to recruit more enforcement officers and increase highway safety.

Helene correctly pointed out that the bill will not encourages the illegal immigrants to come Texas because it is just a driving permit and couldn’t be used for federal identification purpose such as airport security. In this regard, I would like to add that illegal immigrants don’t come to a place just for the opportunities to drive legally. They come mostly for economic reasons such as better opportunities for employment, and also the opportunities to rejoin with their loved ones. So having the opportunities to drive legally will not play any role to increase the number of illegal immigrants in Texas.

In this context, it is worth mentioning the parallelism between driver’s permit to illegal immigrant and the ITIN number of IRS. Currently IRS provides undocumented immigrants an ITIN (Income Tax Identification Number) that can be used to pay Taxes without a SSN. The premise is that no other government agency can have access to that information and as a result this information cannot be used for deportation purpose. While it is difficult to know how much illegal immigration pay taxes through ITIN but a study shows that IRS collected $50 billion between 1996 and 2003 through ITIN filers. It is believed that a large number of them are undocumented immigrants. So if they can already legally pay taxes, then why not let them drive legally in Texas?

In conclusion, letting undocumented immigrants drive legally is not a question of immigration, it’s a question of safety.