Illegal residents should not have drivers licenses

Letter date: 
Friday, August 17, 2012
Letter publisher: 
StatesmanJournal.com
Letter author: 
Cynthia Kendoll
Letter body: 

At this year’s May Day rally, a letter from Gov. John Kitzhaber was read to the crowd announcing he had convened a work group to draft changes in Oregon’s driver licensing requirements.

He said that driver’s licenses for illegal aliens need to be restored so those Oregonians could drive back and forth to their jobs.

With 8.5 percent unemployment, his disregard for Oregon’s legal residents struggling to find a job is insulting.

That the governor would even contemplate the idea that illegal aliens should be provided with driver’s licenses at all should alarm every law-abiding citizen. Worse yet, the most important document a criminal alien can possess is a valid U.S. driver’s license. It’s their passport to the Interstate 5 corridor, allowing them to traffic meth, cocaine, heroin, even humans.

The Oregon Legislature resoundingly passed a law in 2008 requiring only legal residents be issued Oregon driver’s licenses. The Governor’s Driver License Task Force pushes an agenda of finding loopholes in Oregon’s driver licensing requirements.

Citizens should be outraged that the governor’s task force is toiling secretly and stonewalling constituents’ inquiries with the goal of helping illegal aliens retake the foothold they had before the secure driver’s license bill was passed.

Cynthia Kendoll

Salem