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Appeals court rules immigrant 'dreamers' can get driver's licenses - Washington Times
, July 7, 2014
A federal appeals court ruled Monday that young adult illegal immigrants whom President Obama has given tentative permission to be in the country so-called dreamers are also entitled to drivers licenses and ordered Arizona to issue them.
But immigrant-rights advocates hailed the decision, saying it is a major step in helping the Dreamers, who were brought to the U.S. as minors by their parents, move toward some sort of normal life in the U.S.
A three-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Dreamers so-named because of pending federal legislation known as the Dream Act are in the same situation as other illegal immigrants who have applied for legal status and to whom Arizona law grants drivers licenses while they await a final ruling in their cases.
The judges said to treat the Dreamers differently violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution.
Why do you guys hate the US Constitution so much?A three-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Dreamers — so-named because of pending federal legislation known as the Dream Act — are in the same situation as other illegal immigrants who have applied for legal status and to whom Arizona law grants driver’s licenses while they await a final ruling in their cases.
The judges said to treat the Dreamers differently violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution.
Arizona should ignore the order. Force it into the SCOTUS.
Well, at least now they'll have some voter I.D.
The Registry of Motor Vehicles told the Herald its investigative unit suspended 1,376 fraudulent drivers licenses in 2015, 1,362 in 2016, and 1,040 so far this year. The suspension totals include "an underage individual using a fraudulent license to buy liquor, an applicant found to have presented false documentation or someone identified as having multiple records within the RMV's system," an RMV statement said. The agency said it maintains a law enforcement unit dedicated to rooting out fraud and training RMV employees to spot it.
But Saugus police Officer Jim Scott, who maintains a statewide network of police officers whom he has trained to spot the fakes, said that based on duplicate identity records he's seen, he believes there could be as many as 40,000 illegal immigrants who have received Massachusetts driving licenses using stolen identities. "Clearly they're not catching all of them," Scott said. Scott told the Herald that the officers he's trained have detected hundreds of illegal immigrants with fraudulent IDs in traffic stops and other arrests by comparing their data with other official records for discrepancies. They have found many of them listing the same mail drops as their home address.
Scott said many of the frauds could be detected before licenses are issued by watching for the so-called "address dumps," in addition to checking for repeated uses of Social Security numbers, often originating in Puerto Rico. "There's so much they could do," said Scott, adding that the fraudulent suspensions reported by RMV officials could be reviewed and prosecuted for possible identity theft -- giving authorities a chance to go after people potentially involved in drug dealing or other criminal activity and who can be deported.
The owner of a corner store and a mailbox rental business -- identified by Scott as addresses that often appear on fraudulent IDs -- told the Herald yesterday he was unaware his businesses were being used as "address dumps" and said he has never been contacted by police.
Stanley Ibeabuchi, who owns the building that houses his corner store and cellular phone business, said, "It bothers me for someone to say they live at the address when clearly they don't. I don't know anything about this, how did they get the address?" At another suspected address dump in Lynn, William Travascio said he has shipping contracts with the U.S. Postal Service and FedEx and rents more than 100 mailboxes. "We are by the book. ... If they have a picture ID, they can open a mailbox, they're legal," Travascio said. "The police have never come in here. We have not heard anything from the Postal Inspection Office." A laundromat in Roslindale, also cited as an address dump, houses more than five dozen rental mailboxes. The laundromat owner could not be reached for comment yesterday.
License fakers soaring
