driver's license

SALEM, Ore.,  /PRNewswire/ -- A new statewide poll of likely voters finds that Oregonians still overwhelmingly oppose granting driver's licenses to illegal aliens. Voters also thoroughly reject efforts by the State Legislature to override the will of two-thirds - nearly a million Oregon voters - who prevented an earlier effort to grant licenses to illegal aliens, from going into effect. The Equal Access to the Roads Act of 2019 (HB 2015) would once again allow people living in the country illegally, to gain access to Oregon driver's licenses and official state photo identification.

Voters continue to oppose granting driver's licenses to illegal aliens by a 63 percent to 30 percent margin, according to the March 18 and 19 poll conducted by Zogby Analytics. Voters even more emphatically reject a new effort by the Legislature and Gov. Kate Brownto override the will of the people who defeated Measure 88 in 2014. That ballot measure struck down a similar law enacted by the Legislature in 2013. Today, 68.4 percent of voters believe that the Legislature "must respect the decisions made by the voters through the ballot initiative process," compared with just 18.7 percent who think the Legislature has the right to enact laws "that have been previously overturned by the voters."

"The voters have spoken. The Legislature and the governor do not like what they had to say, so they are demonstrating their contempt for the people of Oregon with a blatant attempt to overrule the outcome of a fair and democratic election," charged Cynthia Kendoll, president of Oregonians for Immigration Reform (OFIR), the organization that promoted Measure 88 in 2014. "This sort of arrogance of power is the hallmark of authoritarian dictatorships, not the progressivism that Oregon likes to project to the world."

Adding to the arrogance, state leaders want HB 2015 to include an "emergency" clause, which would prevent opponents of the bill from blocking its implementation through a citizen's veto referendum. This despite the fact the bill will not be enacted until 2021. "Frankly, the voters shouldn't have to say no again. They already have – very loudly, very clearly, and not very long ago. Members of the Legislature don't have to like it. Gov. Brown doesn't have to like it. But, at the very least, they should respect the decision of the voters," said Kendoll.

The polling data includes a stark warning to elected officials in the state. A 63.5 percent majority of Oregon voters indicated that they would be "less likely" to vote for legislators who defy the will of the people on this issue, including 46.5 percent who said they would be "much less likely" to vote for such public officials. Only 11.8 percent said such action would make them more likely to vote for such legislators.

The full results of the statewide poll of Oregon voters can be found here.

Contact: Oregonians for Immigration Reform at 503.435.0141

SOURCE Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) Read more about Zogby Poll Shows Oregon Voters Oppose Giving Driver's Licenses to Illegal Aliens, says FAIR

SALEM, Ore.-  Located in an apartment in a primarily Hispanic town in Oregoon, a clandestine lab churned out thousands of fake Social Security cards, drivers' licenses and immigration documents that were sold around the United States for years.

The operation, revealed for the first time Tuesday in a federal court document, showed that a syndicate based in Oaxaca, Mexico, operated the forged-document factory in Woodburn, a town of 24,000 in an agricultural region a half-hour's drive from Portland.

Employers, including farms, nurseries and wineries, routinely employ people who are in the United States illegally but who can produce a Social Security card or work visa. Many agricultural employers say it's not their responsibility - and that they lack the expertise - to determineine if the documents are genuine.

The arrest on Sept. 21, 2017, of Miguel Merecias-Lopez in a fast-food restaurant parking lot in Woodburn reveals how, in many cases, such documents are produced. Merecias-Lopez pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in Portland to conspiracy to produce false identification documents and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. He had gone to the parking lot to sell more than a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of meth, prosecutors said.

Homeland Security Investigations had already been looking at the syndicate they called the "Fraud Doc Ring" before the arrest, said Kevin Sonoff, spokesman for the United States Attorney's Office in Portland. After Merecias-Lopez was arrested, investigators went to his apartment and found computers, scanners, laminators, cameras and a high-resolution printer.

"The fraud ring operated in Woodburn for more than a decade and produced over 10,000 fraudulent documents that they distributed in Woodburn or mailed to customers around the United States," U.S. Attorney Billy Williams and Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Sax said in the plea agreement posted Tuesday in court documents. Previous detailed court documents remain under seal.

The Fraud Doc Ring communicated with customers using Facebook, email, Snapchat and in person, the plea deal states. Customers emailed, texted or mailed the ring digital passport-style photos for insertion into the fake ID cards, or visited a clandestine photography lab in Woodburn where their photos were taken, the plea agreement says. Customers paid electronically through PayPal, through the mail or in person.

In the apartment, agents found dozens of security images and seals used in legitimate identification documents. They also found stored digital photos of more than 4,000 customers.

The Fraud Doc Ring produced a wide array of documents, including drivers' licenses for over 25 different states, Social Security cards, lawful permanent resident cards, U.S. and Mexican birth certificates and marriage licenses.

There is a huge market for such documents. Immigrants working illegally in this country accounted for about 46 percent of America's roughly 800,000 crop farmworkers in recent years, according to an Associated Press analysis of data from the U.S. Departments of Labor and Agriculture. Many more work in the nation's hospitality, service and construction industries.

Merecias-Lopez's attorney, Brian Walker, did not immediately respond to emailed and phone messages requesting comment. Merecias-Lopez said in his petition to plead guilty that he has a 10th-grade education, and that he understands that conviction can lead to imprisonment and deportation.

Merecias-Lopez, 24, moved to Woodburn from Oaxaca in January 2017, long after the fraud ring began operating. He is responsible for creating at least 300 fraudulent U.S. government documents, according to the plea agreement.

Government prosecutors and Walker are jointly recommending a low sentence. For the false documents conviction, he faces a maximum 15 years in prison and $250,000 fine. The drug conviction carries a maximum sentence of life in prison with a 10 year mandatory minimum sentence and a $10 million fine.

Sonoff said no other arrests have been made and that the current criminal inquiry focuses only on Merecias-Lopez and his co-conspirators, not on their customers.

Sentencing is scheduled for June 18. Read more about Feds: Forgery operation produced over 10,000 fake documents

WASHINGTON - The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) marked a victory after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a district court decision to dismiss a case that sought to force the State of Oregon to grant driving privileges to illegal aliens.

IRLI had filed a friend-of-the-court brief in 2016 on behalf of its client Oregonians for Immigration Reform (OFIR) in the case of M.S. v. Brown, in which plaintiffs looked to overturn as unconstitutional the outcome of the November 2014 general election in Oregon. Through the Oregon Constitution’s referendum veto process, Oregon voters overwhelmingly rejected, by 66%, a bill passed by the he legislature and signed by the governor that would have extended eligibility for driving privileges to unlawfully present persons. OFIR was the driving force behind the referendum veto that collected the requisite number of signatures to get the issue placed on the ballot.

The case, brought by five admitted illegal aliens and two illegal alien special interest groups, was dismissed in May 2016 when an Oregon district court ruled that the plaintiffs could not show that an order from the court could redress their complaint as the court had no power to overturn a referendum or force the state to pass legislation giving illegal aliens driving privileges. In its brief, IRLI agreed with the district court and argued further that the plaintiffs also failed to demonstrate an injury, a necessary element of standing to sue, as illegal aliens have no constitutional right to driving privileges, and, in fact, do not even possess the constitutional right to interstate travel (which citizens and legal aliens possess) as a result of their illegal presence in the U.S.

There are a number of reasons why granting driving privileges to illegal aliens is not in the interests of states or their citizens. Among them, states have a legitimate interest in limiting their finite resources to citizens and legal aliens and in not allowing their government machinery to be a facilitator for the concealment of illegal aliens. There is also a legitimate concern that persons subject to immediate or subsequent deportation will not be financially responsible for property damage or personal injury due to automobile accidents. Finally, granting driving privileges to illegal aliens harms national security because, unlike legal aliens, illegal aliens have not undergone background checks or face-to-face interviews to determine whether they pose a national security threat.

“This is a tremendous win for residents of Oregon and the American people at large,” said Dale L. Wilcox, IRLI’s executive director and general counsel. “Since the presence of illegal aliens in the United States is a violation of federal law, the notion that those aliens should be granted the privilege to drive and the right to travel freely throughout the country is absurd. The result of this decision will be safer communities that better serve the interests of their citizens and legal residents.”  Read more about 'No' to Driving Privileges for Illegal Aliens

The man suspected of killing an Oregon couple in a high-speed drunk driving collision earlier in August is an illegal immigrant from Mexico, The Daily Caller News Foundation learned.

Eduardo de la Lima Vargas, 39, allegedly ran a red light on a state highway in Salem, Oregon, on Aug. 19, striking a motorcycle being driven by Logan Wilson, 34, and his wife Jessi, 32. The collision tossed the Wilsons from the motorcycle, fatally injuring both.

Vargas blew a .10 blood alcohol level on a breathalyzer roughly two hours after the crash, according to a Salem police report. Investigators believe he was probably driving at twice the legal alcohol limit at the time he crashed into the Wilsons, who are survived by four young children. (RELATED: Suspect In DUI Killing Of Colts Player Is Twice-Deported Illegal Immigrant)

Following the wreck, Vargas was booked into the Marion County jail on two counts of manslaughter, as well as one count each of reckless endangering, reckless driving and driving under the influence. He remains in state custody on a $500,000 bond.

Additionally, Vargas is now the subject of a federal immigration detention request. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed the detainer Aug. 24 in a statement to Salem-based crime researcher David Olen Cross, who shared it Thursday with TheDCNF.

“On August 23, 2018, ICE deportation officers lodged an immigration detainer with the Marion County Jail on Eduardo De la Lima Vargas, following his arrest for DUI resulting in death,” agency spokesperson Lori Haley said in a statement, according to Cross. “Mr. De la Lima Vargas is a citizen of Mexico illegally residing in the United States.”

Cross inquired about Vargas’s immigration status as a part of his research into criminal activity by noncitizens in Oregon. On behalf of Republican state Sen. Kim Thatcher, he creates monthly reports using data from ICE and the Oregon Department of Corrections (DOC) in order to document the cost of incarcerating foreign nationals in the state prison system, where one in 15 inmates is a criminal alien.

Cross’s research has shown that about three-quarters of all criminal aliens in Oregon’s prison system are serving time for what the FBI defines as violent crimes — murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault — or sex crimes under the Oregon criminal code.

Of the 943 Oregon state prison inmates with active ICE detainers as of July, 731 — 77 percent — have been convicted of those violent crimes or sex offenses, according to Cross’s latest report. That compares to about 60 percent of “domestic” inmates who were convicted of the same offenses. (RELATED: Suspected Oregon Nail Gun Attacker Is Previously Deported Illegal Alien From Mexico)

Oregon is one of the nation’s most active states when it comes to limiting cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities. It has had a sanctuary law on the books since 1987 that prohibits state and local law enforcement resources from being used to enforce federal immigration law. Oregon expanded its sanctuary protections in 2017 with a law that forbids schools, courts and other public agencies from sharing information with immigration authorities unless required to do so by federal law.

The move to strengthen protections for illegal immigrants easily passed Oregon’s Democratic-controlled legislature, but it was also met with pushback from Republican lawmakers and grassroots conservative groups. A ballot initiative to overturn Oregon’s sanctuary state law garnered more than 97,000 signatures in July, well above the 88,000 needed to qualify for the Nov. 6 general election. Read more about EXCLUSIVE: DRIVER WHO ALLEGEDLY KILLED OREGON COUPLE IN DUI CRASH IS ILLEGAL ALIEN, ICE SAYS

As the dilemma of what to do about the illegal alien participants in former President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program has dominated the immigration debate for more than a year, a new investigation has revealed the lengths to which the previous chief executive facilitated the program.

They did so by, among other things, ignoring widespread identity theft by illegal aliens and keeping Americans in the dark about being cut off from their Social Security benefits. The findings show how DACA is not the act of benevolence that is portrayed in the media, and has actually caused great harm to American citizens. It simply has to end.

Diving deep into the beginnings of DACA, Jan Ting, a law professor at Temple and former assistant commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, details how the Obama Homeland Security Department (DHS) kept the use of stolen Social Security numbers from being counted against would-be DACA applicants.

As he shows, the promise to forgive the crime, one that is pervasive among illegal aliens, was consciously designed to incentivize DACA-eligible “dreamers” — for the never-passed Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act — to come out of the shadows and apply for the program.

In addition to being a blatant violation of the Constitution and our immigration laws, DACA can now be seen as the product of an administration that refused to enforce the law for political reasons, and at the expense of honest citizens.

Further, Ting reveals how the DHS omission was supplemented by the Social Security Administration (SSA), which halted a program started in the 1970s that communicated to working people when there was a mismatch between the information submitted in employer wage reports and what was in the agency’s database.

The notices, which had formerly been posted to millions of people across the country and appear to be mandatory under SSA regulations, are important because when a submitted name/SSN combination isn't lining up in SSA's system, the citizen or legal resident's number appears illegitimate, which can lead to their Social Security benefits' being frozen.

This can happen, for instance, if there's a typographical error on an employer's W-2 wage report or when a newly married woman changes her name but forgets to report it. According to SSA records, hundreds of thousands of legitimate SSN users had been responding to such letters annually, requesting help from the SSA to ensure they received the benefits to which they are entitled.

Over the years, however, the vast majority of letter recipients have been illegal aliens. As Ting writes, before DACA, the SSA had estimated that three out of every four illegal aliens possessed a Social Security number, which had either been stolen from an American citizen or legal resident or simply made up.

Although almost never reported on, when illegal aliens steal a Social Security number, the consequences can be very serious for the legitimate user. On top of receiving IRS letters and audits accusing them of having income they are not claiming or having their benefits blocked, reconciling a compromised identifier is estimated to cost thousands of dollars and take years of effort.

This doesn't matter to most illegal aliens, given the benefits involved, including the documentation they need to obtain work in the U.S., where wages, at least compared to Mexico, are 10 times higher.

The pervasiveness of this crime was, however, apparently lost on the Obama DHS. When DACA was first implemented, DHS did nothing to allay the uncertainty and fear among applicants about whether the discovery of identity fraud would trigger a denial or be used to prosecute them.

As Ting shows, after the DACA rollout, DHS jumped to correct the "mistake," rushing out a statement after the program's announcement assuring potential applicants they were "not interested in using [DACA] as a way to identify one-off cases where some individual may have violated some federal law in an employment relationship." Just as with their initial immigration violation, DACA aliens' Social Security number fraud was to be swept under the rug.

Giving DACA applicants the assurance they needed to apply was further aided by the SSA. Just eight days after DACA was implemented, its letter-mailing program was halted. With applicants' receiving letters from the SSA flagging them as possible identity thieves, they would likely be far less confident in approaching the government for DACA benefits.

Moreover, for the SSA's program to persist alongside DACA would have simply looked absurd. On the one hand, DACA aliens would be told they had been flagged for a serious criminal violation, while on the other, they were being called "dreamers" and told they needn't worry about the violations.

Further, as Ting found, the suspension of the SSA letters wasn't made public until late 2016, a full four years after the program was terminated. Publicly announcing the suspension just days after DACA went into effect no doubt would have created suspicion from an American public already skeptical of Obama's unprecedented amnesty push.

That Obama would go to such lengths to ensure the successful rollout of DACA is unsurprising, considering the dubious legal justifications of the program to begin with, along with other extreme nonenforcement measures taken throughout his tenure.

The direct harm inflicted on the American public, the details of which we hope will come to the surface as this story unfolds, perhaps puts it above other damaging aspects of Obama's immigration legacy.

Those dubious justifications included the "prioritization" of removals only for serious criminal aliens, plus the legal attacks on state and local governments that sought to cooperate with the federal government's immigration enforcement efforts.

But the direct harm inflicted on the American public, the details of which we hope will come to the surface as this story unfolds, perhaps puts it above other damaging aspects of Obama's immigration legacy.

For now, we at the Immigration Reform Law Institute are suing SSA and DHS, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), for records concerning decisions made by the DACA program's architects. Congress, the relevant inspectors general, and the Department of Justice should to investigate the matter fully.

Dale L. Wilcox is executive director and general counsel at the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a public interest law firm working to defend the rights and interests of the American people from the negative effects of mass migration. Read more about How Barack Obama's DACA Encouraged Identity Theft by Illegal Aliens

California newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times and Sacramento Bee, reported that the California Department of Motor Vehicles announced on April 4 that more than one million “undocumented immigrants” — illegal aliens — have received driver’s licenses. Those who are in this country illegally have been allowed to receive driver’s licenses since 2015, when Assembly Bill 60, which required California DMV offices to issue driver’s licenses to illegal aliens as long as they can prove their identity and residence within the state, took effect. 

AB 60 was authored by former Assemblyman Luis Alejo. It was signed into law in October 2013 by Democrat Governor Jerry Brown. There are an estimated 2.5 million illegal aliens in California...

Alejo, in a statement quoted by the Times, praised the news that the number of licenses issued to illegals had passed the one-million mark. “It’s been successful for over a million families who can now drive to work, take their kids to school in the morning or go see the doctor without fear that their car is going to be impounded,” said Alejo, who is now a Monterey County supervisor. “Now their lives are better, and our roads and highways are safer for everyone.”

Alejo’s statement presumes that these illegal aliens have been breaking the law all along by driving without licenses, since if they had not been driving they would not have feared that their cars might be impounded. In fact, they would not even have cars.

However, since, illegal aliens, by entering our country illegally, are breaking the law simply by being in this country, it should not surprise anyone that they are breaking multiple other laws.

The law granting illegals licenses was an expensive one to implement and was expected to cost the state $141 million over a period of three years, according to the Orange County Register. During the year before it went into effect, the DMV hired 1,000 temporary employees and opened four additional processing centers...

We reported in our article in August 2015 that a then-current report released by the non-profit Pew Charitable Trust indicated that as of that year, 10 states and the District of Columbia had issued driver's licenses to illegal aliens. Nearly 37 percent of illegals live in a jurisdiction where they may now obtain a license. The states are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Vermont, and Washington.

The Pew report noted that since the documents, such as U.S. birth certificates or U.S. passports, typically accepted as proof of age and identity are not available to illegal aliens, states issuing licenses to illegals accept alternate forms of identification. Consular identification cards, issued to foreign nationals by the embassy or consulate of their country of origin, are a common substitute and are accepted by all 11 jurisdictions issuing licenses to illegal aliens.

Giving driver’s licenses to illegal aliens can result in other negative consequence aside from reinforcing their decision to continue breaking our immigration laws. Driver’s licenses can actually make it easier for the aliens to register to vote, something they are not legally allowed to do, but may do anyway.

On April 1, a new law will go into effect in California that will automatically register people to vote through the Department of Motor Vehicles, including aliens who are in the country illegally. 

Back on October 10, 2015, California Governor Brown signed Assembly Bill 1461, the New Motor Voter Act, which automatically registers people to vote when they apply for a new driver's license or new state ID through the DMV. Because this process lacks the safeguards present in traditional voter registration procedures, it could result in illegal aliens voting.

The day after the bill was signed, a reporter for the Washington Times noted that the under the new law, all Californians would automatically be registered to vote when they obtained or renewed their driver’s licenses at the DMV, instead of being required to fill out a separate form.

The Times report cited the anti-vote fraud groups True the Vote and the Election Integrity Project of California, which had urged Brown to veto the bill, saying it would lead to “‘state sanctioned’ voter fraud” and pointing out that the legislation exempts from penalties ineligible voters who wind up being registered.

“This bill is terrible. It makes an already bad situation much, much worse,” True the Vote founder Catherine Engelbrecht said in a statement.

During a discussion about California’s New Motor Voter Act on the October 13, 2015 edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends, Judge Andrew Napolitano predicted, “The state is going to provide shelter for illegals to vote.” Read more about Number of Illegal Aliens Granted California Driver’s Licenses Passes One Million