Letters page
Before the government shutdown, as Harry Reid refused to negotiate, the media blamed Republicans for the closure. But that proved to be the perfect "briar patch" to be thrown into once the shortcomings of Obamacare became known to the public. The Obamacare debut was so bad the Obama-media-complex couldn't hide it and anti-Republican polls reversed themselves and voters realized the world would be a better place if Ted Cruz had been able to defund it.
Only President Obama didn't seem to get it and now he intends to promote another piece of massively complex legislation, Comprehensive Immigration Reform. But the public won't be fooled twice. Now they know this president will happily grant waivers to his political friends and he'll pick and choose which parts of a law he will — or will not — enforce. They know too, most illegal aliens in America are poorly educated, so they'll probably vote Democrat, creating even more Reids and Obamas.
In short, the president has blown his cover. He was able to keep enough folks in the dark to push through Obamacare, but his chances of doing that with immigration reform are pretty much zilch to none.
And that's a very good thing.
Politics can work. Mainly at the local or state level.
Oregonians for Immigration Reform stepped up to challenge the driver card bill passed by the left-leaning governor and state representatives. They collected signatures and now it will be a ballot measure next November.
All this bill really does is buy votes for liberals. It does not guarantee safer drivers as it claims. It lines the pockets of insurance companies and most of all, it endorses illegal activity.
Don’t we have enough of that with this president?
Gary Rider, Albany
Once again the media have wrongly and unfairly characterized Oregonians for Immigration Reform as an “anti-immigrant group."
OFIR is not anti-immigrant. We oppose illegal immigration. OFIR has clearly stated that it favors levels of legal immigration that are economically, socially and environmentally sustainable.
We are opposed to making it easier for unscrupulous businesses to hire workers who are in the country illegally instead of American workers. We are opposed to our governor and legislators laying out the welcome mat for these workers and thumbing their noses at our nation’s laws by aiding and abetting people who have violated the law. Kudos to OFIR, Rep. Kim Thatcher, Rep. Sal Esquivel and the hundreds of volunteers who have forced a referendum on the ill-advised Senate Bill 833.
Jerry Ritter
Springfield
In a sign of the times, tiny apartments of less than 200 square feet are to be built in Portland. They will have shared kitchens.
To those familiar with population trends, this isn’t surprising. Tight living quarters may be in the future for all but the richest elite - envision crowds of people milling around on the streets day and night, like those in the sci-fi movies, Soylent Green and Blade Runner.
Ballooning population increases of recent years are apparent, and thoughtful people wonder: Will growth never stop? Will Oregon and the U.S. become one unbroken sprawl of high-rise apartments from east to west, where a dwelling unit of 200 square feet might even be a luxury?
Read the full letter here.
Senate Bill 833, passed by the Oregon Legislature and signed into law on May 1 by Gov. John Kitzhaber, will undermine Senate Bill 1080, legislation passed in 2008 that requires legal presence in the state to obtain an Oregon driver’s license.
Ever since the passage SB 1080, the Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles has been required by Oregon law (House Bill 3624) to provide an annual report on the number persons driving without licenses or insurance.
Read the full commentary about SB 833 - click on read the original letter
I am pleased that Oregonians for Immigration Reform stepped up to the plate. You see, the only place you can achieve political results is at the city or state level.
My view of the driver card issue is based on the fact that we have a Democrat in Salem along with a Democratic Legislature. So, follow the money:
1. Revenue for the state.
2. Vote buyer for the Democrats.
3. This will not make safe drivers.
4. Insurance companies are drooling at the mouth.
There are many points of view, but the main one is this: This is condoning illegal behavior. How do you overrule that fact?
We already have a president who does not follow the Constitution. Come on. Enough.
Gary Rider
Albany
Senate Bill 833, passed by the Oregon Legislature and signed into law on May 1 by Gov. John Kitzhaber, will undermine Senate Bill 1080, legislation passed in 2008 that requires legal presence in the state to obtain an Oregon driver’s license.
There was no justification for the Legislature and governor to make SB 833 state law this year allowing those without documentation to obtain access to a pseudo-driver’s license — called a driver card.
Looking back to 2012, when opponents to the issuance of driver’s licenses to the undocumented found out about proposed legislation that would change the legal-presence requirement, they asked to participate in what was then called the Governor’s Driver License Task Force. They were completely shut out.
Exclusion of public input continued even after SB 833 was introduced during the regular 2013 legislative session.
To avoid scrutiny or critiques of the legislation, pro-SB 833 legislators dominated with their own testimony during most of the time they made available for public oral testimony on the legislation. Before hearing from citizens who had signed up to speak in opposition, the Senate committee chair invited lengthy oral testimony from an alleged undocumented mother accompanied by her small child, a political ploy known as “baby waving.”
It gets worse; to avoid further public scrutiny of SB 833 that might reveal possible flaws in the legislation, the senators and representatives controlling the legislative process used a tactic of moving the legislation from the Senate directly to the House floor for a debate and vote, sidestepping the normal procedure of hearings in both chambers.
To open up the democratic process to citizens shunned by the pro-SB 833 cabal in the governor’s office and Legislature, state Reps. Kim Thatcher and Sal Esquivel, along with Richard F. LaMountain, vice president of Oregonians for Immigration Reform, stepped forward and placed their names on Oregon referendum 301. The referendum campaign’s being successful would stop SB 833 from becoming state law on Jan. 1, 2014, and instead would place the legislative decision before Oregon voters in November 2014.
With guidance from OFIR and the Protect Oregon Driver Licenses Committee, in a nonpartisan effort, Oregonians worked together and gathered in just more than four months 70,973 referendum signatures that were turned into the state elections office by the Oct. 4 deadline.
On Oct. 18, after the first statistical check by state election officials of 1,000 referendum petition signees, election officials validated the signatures of 58,291 registered Oregon voters, more than the minimum number of signatures the referendum campaign needed.
The 70,973 registered Oregon voters who signed the referendum did their homework. These Oregonians understand there is simply no data to back up proponents’ claims that making SB 833 a state law will make Oregon’s roads any safer.
Oregon voters who think illegal immigrants should not get driver’s cards will have the chance to overrule their legislators next year. We hope they’ll do just that.
The opportunity comes from Oregon’s initiative process.
The Legislature passed Senate Bill 833 earlier this year, allowing those in the state illegally to get driver’s cards. It was scheduled to go into effect in January.
But last week, Secretary of State Kate Brown announced that opponents had collected enough signatures to put Referendum No. 301 on the November 2014 ballot. If the majority of voters vote no, SB 833 will be overturned. In the meantime, its provisions are on hold.
To get a driver’s card under SB 833, a person must meet all the requirements for a driver’s license except proof of legal residency. The cards are supposed to carry a distinguishing label to prevent their use to try to prove a person is in the nation legally.
Advocates of the law say it will encourage illegal residents to learn the rules of the road, get insurance and drive legally, thereby helping them get to and from work and participate fully in the economy.
Unfortunately, granting the driver’s cards will also further confuse the issue of legal and illegal residence. Depending on how prominently the cards declare their difference from regular licenses, they could be used inappropriately.
The state should not be in the business of creating loopholes for those who break the law by being in the nation illegally. Solving the immigration issue is a federal responsibility and shouldn’t be handled piecemeal by the states.
Oregon’s initiative law has sometimes created governing challenges, as demonstrated by the state’s complex tax structure. But whatever the outcome of the vote in this case, it’s a good use of the initiative process. It gives voters a check on their elected representatives and the chance to exercise some direct democracy.
Once again the media have wrongly and unfairly characterized Oregonians for Immigration Reform as an “anti-immigrant group” (“Driver’s license law up for vote,” Oct. 19). OFIR is not “anti-immigrant.” We are anti-illegal immigration and pro-sustainable legal immigration.
We support our nation’s laws. We believe our elected representatives should do the same and shouldn’t be aiding and abetting those who violate those laws.
We are anti-replacement of American workers with foreign workers, as some U.S. companies are doing to drive down wages. We are against a big increase in the number of foreign work visas that would be allowed under U.S. Senate Bill 744, supported by Oregon Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden.
Kudos to OFIR, state Reps. Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer, and Sal Esquivel, R-Medford, and the hundreds of volunteers who forced the misguided state Senate Bill 833 to a vote in November 2014. I’m guessing our legislators and governor will find they’re out of touch with their constituents on this issue.
Illegal immigrants hoping to get an Oregon driver’s license in 2014 under Senate Bill 833 will have to wait at least another year now that enough signatures have been gathered to put the issue to a statewide vote.
In May, Governor John Kitzhaber signed the bill into law, granting those without proof of citizenship the ability to get a card allowing them to drive legally in Oregon starting in 2014. But the citizen group Oregonians for Immigration Reform collected the necessary 58,142 signatures to put a referendum blocking the law onto the November 2014 ballot.
The law would still go into effect if voters reject Referendum 301, but either way the move delays the law until voters have their say, almost a year after it was slated to take effect.
Eddie De La Cruz, a member of Hermiston’s Hispanic Advisory Committee, said it was frustrating to see the law hit a roadblock after it was already signed by the governor.
“It’s actually a raw deal we’re getting back because a lot of work went into it and now it’s getting pushed back before it’s even started,” he said.
Opponents of the new driver’s cards say it grants unearned privileges to people who are breaking the law by being in the country illegally. Richard LaMountain, one of the referendum’s chief sponsors, wrote in a guest column for the Oregonian that “Congress has established laws that regulate who enters our country, at what times and in what numbers.”
“By granting driving privileges to illegal immigrants, the Oregon Legislature has undermined those laws — for the specific purpose, indeed, of benefiting those who’ve deliberately broken them,” he wrote.
But De La Cruz said the driver’s cards are about making Oregon roads safer by giving those without proper papers incentive to learn Oregon’s driving laws and train for a driver’s test.
“We were going to make sure if people are on the road they’re safe and qualified and know what they’re doing,” he said. “Now we’re back to square one.”
He said the law also makes economic sense — Oregon is losing money as immigrants take their earnings to states where they are allowed to drive to work legally.
Now supporters and opponents of Senate Bill 833 have another long fight ahead of them as they work to convince Oregonians to vote their way in 2014.
David House, spokesman for the Department of Motor Vehicles in Oregon, said the department had been in the process of training 29 new employees in preparation for the extra workload. Those workers have been let go now that the law that funded them won’t take effect in January.
“Programming, procedures, fliers — everything has been put on hold,” House said.
He said if the referendum fails during the Nov. 2014 election the Driver’s Card Program will begin 30 days later.
