Ralph Cringely
11-01-2007, 09:49 PM
Top notch debate on NY Drivers Licenses
Tonight PBS aired on their News Hour a first class hashing out (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/social_issues/july-dec07/id_11-01.html) of the issue of New York drivers licenses.
RAY SUAREZ:
Now, two different views of the driver's license issue from Mark Krikorian, executive director for the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, and from Clark Kent Ervin, ... now director of the Homeland Security Program at the Aspen Institute in Washington.
...
RAY SUAREZ: ... the people ... who would get that third-tier [NY drivers] license would have to provide a passport from the foreign nation ... Wouldn't knowing who they are and where they're from be better than not knowing where they are or where they're from?
MARK KRIKORIAN: As long as the next step is their detention and deportation from the United States, yes. But there's a tension there. No one's going to provide that information if the result is the law is now going to be enforced and they're going to be made to leave.
But at the same time, if we are registering them and signing them up, we are essentially saying, "We're not going to deport you." It's a kind of de facto amnesty.
RAY SUAREZ: Well, ... if people show up in a government office and say, "I'm in the country illegally," the next step should be to get them out of the country.
CLARK KENT ERVIN: Well, we've had that debate already this year, and the decision was made for the foreseeable future that we're not going to deport illegal aliens.
Tonight PBS aired on their News Hour a first class hashing out (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/social_issues/july-dec07/id_11-01.html) of the issue of New York drivers licenses.
RAY SUAREZ:
Now, two different views of the driver's license issue from Mark Krikorian, executive director for the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, and from Clark Kent Ervin, ... now director of the Homeland Security Program at the Aspen Institute in Washington.
...
RAY SUAREZ: ... the people ... who would get that third-tier [NY drivers] license would have to provide a passport from the foreign nation ... Wouldn't knowing who they are and where they're from be better than not knowing where they are or where they're from?
MARK KRIKORIAN: As long as the next step is their detention and deportation from the United States, yes. But there's a tension there. No one's going to provide that information if the result is the law is now going to be enforced and they're going to be made to leave.
But at the same time, if we are registering them and signing them up, we are essentially saying, "We're not going to deport you." It's a kind of de facto amnesty.
RAY SUAREZ: Well, ... if people show up in a government office and say, "I'm in the country illegally," the next step should be to get them out of the country.
CLARK KENT ERVIN: Well, we've had that debate already this year, and the decision was made for the foreseeable future that we're not going to deport illegal aliens.