Dear NC Legislators-
I am asking you as a NC citizen to decide if co-sponsoring H786 Reclaim NC Act complies with your promise to:
1) Uphold the Constitution and rule of law
2) Create jobs for NC’s unemployed
3) Not to cater to special interests’
Section 8 guts the current e-verify law by:
1) exempting employers from the requirement of e-verifying a potential employee if the employee has a NC issued drivers’ permit or ID card;
2) exempting employers from prosecution if the hire an illegal alien with a NC issued drivers’ permit or ID card and
3) it redefines a seasonal employee as anyone who works less than one year (instead of 90 days)
Section 9 allows for NC to issue licenses to almost all illegal aliens in the state. New Mexico has done it and now wishes they hadn’t as indicated by the following quote from one of the articles below: “A driver’s license is a privilege of tremendous value to the millions of undocumented immigrants nationwide. But that rare privilege has undeniably brought trouble to New Mexico.”
Some of those problems include:
1) Major identity theft increase
2) Human trafficking increase
3) Organized crime increase
4) Widespread document fraud increase
5) Led to increase in uninsured drivers on roads (not decrease)
6) Not helping with the public safety aspect
Why would you want to bring all of this upon the citizens who voted for you? Please reconsider your co-sponsorship of H786 – Reclaim NC Act.
Thank you,
James Johnson
President-NCFIRE
North Carolinians For Immigration Reform and Enforcement
cell # 910-286-3022
Susana Martinez Renews Push to Repeal Licenses For Undocumented
Jan. 24, 2013
“We believe that a majority who get licenses don’t live here,” said S.U. Mahesh, a spokesman for New Mexico’s Motor Vehicle Division.
Mahesh said the department gets a case of fraud every few months or so. When asked to square his claim that a majority of the licenses are fraudulently issued with the small case number, he said he doesn’t think most instances are caught.
“It’s a major identity theft issue for residents here,” he continued. “The bottom line is this is not helping with the public safety issue.”
A New Fight on Licenses for Illegal Immigrants
January 18, 2012
“The policy of giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, which nearly every other state has repealed or opposed, leads to fraud, human trafficking, organized crime and significant security concerns,” said Scott Darnell, a spokesman for Ms. Martinez, who gave a nod to the repeal efforts in her State of the State address on Tuesday.
“The issue has been debated long enough; it doesn’t take much time for lawmakers to vote to repeal this dangerous law”, Mr. Darnell said.
Over the summer, Ms. Martinez’s administration sent 10,000 letters to foreign citizens with New Mexico driver’s licenses, seeking proof of residency. The letters followed a rash of scams aimed at getting local licenses for immigrants living outside the state.
About a third of the letters were returned as undeliverable, raising suspicion of fraud, Mr. Darnell said.
Immigrant Driver’s Licenses A Hot Topic In New Mexico
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2013/jan/11/immigrant-drivers-licenses-hot-topic-new-mexico/
Friday, January 11, 2013
A driver’s license is a privilege of tremendous value to the millions of undocumented immigrants nationwide. But that rare privilege has undeniably brought trouble to New Mexico, as witnessed by Matt Chandler, the 9th Judicial District Attorney for New Mexico.
“There are individuals out there that will capitalize on foreign nationals that want to take advantage of the law that we have here in New Mexico,” he said.
Last year state police busted an alleged fraud ring in Portales. They charged nine people in a scheme to provide driver’s licenses to at least 54 immigrants who lived out of state.
The evidence of fraud is stacked in manila folders at the DA’s office. Each is fat with hundreds of documents from titles to vehicles sitting in junkyards, fake utility bills and forged signatures on false rental agreements.
“There are hundreds of people that are gathering driver’s licenses that we do not know who they are or where they live or where they are going,” Chandler said. “And it leaves us in law enforcement to only be able to speculate about what their intent is.”
Investigator Terry Mulligan with the 9th Judicial District of New Mexico reviews files in a case involving driver’s license fraud.
Some of those acquiring driver’s licenses fraudulently may want them to simply get around, but law enforcement worry about people who might want them for criminal purposes. Once a fraudulently acquired license is issued it’s hard to track the person down because most of the information they gave is false.
Across New Mexico, there are at least 10 other cases similar to the one in Portales in various stages of the judicial system. Authorities will cancel all the licenses issued as part of the Portales case.
Elsewhere in the country, New Mexico is known as the go-to place for driver’s licenses, said Charles Kuck, an immigration attorney in Georgia.
His clients tell him there is a network of people who charge thousands to arrange trips to New Mexico for immigrants who want a driver’s license.
New Mexico may limit driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants
January 27, 2012
Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, who was not in office when the legislation passed, says it encourages fraud.
Her argument got some fuel this week from an Associated Press investigation showing that state driver’s license data pointed to possible abuse.
People who apply for New Mexico licenses must show multiple identifying documents and prove they live in the state. When the AP analyzed years of license data, the news service found dozens of addresses where fraud may have occurred.
For example, over a five-year period, 48 foreign nationals applying for licenses said they lived at an Albuquerque smoke shop. Seventeen people during a nine-month period said they lived at a car repair business.
New Mexico Won’t Stop Giving Illegal Aliens Driver’s Licenses
January 30, 2012
For the second time in less than a year lawmakers in one of the only states to still offer illegal immigrants driver’s licenses have rejected legislation to reverse the practice, even though it violates a federal identification law enacted to protect national security after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
New Mexico started giving illegal aliens driver’s licenses after an influential immigrant rights group (Somos Un Pueblo Unido or We are a United Town) pushed for it in 2002. A handful of other states had the same reckless policy, but most have rescinded it to comply with the Real ID Act, enacted in 2005 at the recommendation of the 9/11 Commission to verify the authenticity of every driver’s license applicant.
The law forces states to require that documents, such as a birth certificate or passport, submitted to get the card are legitimate and that the applicant is in the United States legally. This will establish a much-needed standardized national driver’s license system that will be less prone to fraud and will prevent terrorists from abusing it as did several of the September 11 hijackers.
But New Mexico lawmakers refuse to comply, asserting that illegal immigrants must drive to work and take their children to school without fear of arrest for not having a license. In fact, the state’s House Majority leader, Democrat Ken Martinez, celebrates New Mexico’s driver’s license policy for allowing illegal immigrants to “come up from the shadows.”
Last spring the full legislature defeated a bill that would have done away with the driver’s license policy. Washington State, the only other to offer illegal immigrants the cards, also rejected a similar bill around the same time.
Governor Martinez contends that New Mexico’s license system is subject to widespread fraud. In fact, the state has brought charges against several crime rings, in which brokers were paid to supplement fraudulent documents for foreign nationals from Poland, China, Mexico and other countries.
Additionally, a review of license data conducted by a national news wire reveals that dozens of address have been used over and over again by immigrants to get driver’s licenses in New Mexico.
Though limited, the probe identified 170 addresses in New Mexico at which 10 or more licenses have been issued to different foreign nationals from 2003 through 2011.
