No licenses for illegal aliens
Should Oregon give official driving privileges to illegal aliens? In passing SB 833 last May, the Legislature said yes, but many concerned citizens said then and still say, no way.
A referendum effort could put the question on the ballot in November 2014, enabling voters to overturn SB 833. To learn more, download a single-signature sheet or request forms for collecting signatures at www.protectoregondl.org.
Sponsors of the petition are Rep. Kim Thatcher (R-Keizer), Rep. Sal Esquivel (R-Medford) and Richard LaMountain of Portland, vice president of Oregonians for Immigration Reform.
As Rep. Thatcher has said, "Issuing these Oregon driver’s licenses is basically giving people who aren’t here legally state-sanctioned permission to be on our roads and, therefore, in our country For a free society, citizens need to respect and obey the law. If we adopt government policies condoning unlawful behavior, aren’t we jeopardizing the rule of law?"
"SB 833 was rammed through the Legislature so quickly," said Rep. Esquivel, that "most Oregonians barely got the chance to scrutinize it and weigh in with their opinions."
Large-scale illegal immigration in recent decades has been very costly to taxpayers. Careful estimates by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a nonprofit group based in Washington, D.C., put the price to Oregon taxpayers at $1 billion a year for education, health care, social assistance, justice and law enforcement, and general public services. Taxes paid by illegal aliens amount to only about 7 percent of their cost.
Besides monetary costs to taxpayers, other ill effects of illegal immigration are too numerous to list here.
Illegal immigration should not be encouraged or accommodated by measures such as SB 833. Sign the petition for the referendum and help stop this harmful bill.
