Three states have recorded a surge in the number of illegal alien drivers, The Associated Press reports. The reasons are that other states are cracking down on illegals, driving them to places where it is easy to get a drivers license.
Utah, New Mexico, and Washington, which do not require American citizenship as a condition of getting a drivers license, are receiving a deluge of illegals, mostly from states like Arizona and Oklahoma. Although a judge struck recently struck down Arizona’s recently passed law, which permits police to inquire about the immigration status of individuals during an otherwise lawful contact, illegals there are apparently leaving the state for more hospitable climes. Reported the AP:
Three states — Washington, New Mexico and Utah — allow illegal immigrants to get licenses because their laws do not require proof of citizenship or legal residency. An Associated Press analysis found that those states have seen a surge in immigrants seeking IDs in recent months, a trend experts attribute to crackdowns on illegal immigration in Arizona and elsewhere.
Brian Zimmer, president of the Coalition for a Secure Driver’s License, told the wire service that “Washington state and New Mexico have been magnet states for the fraudulent document brokers, human traffickers and alien smugglers for years.”
During the 10 weeks after Arizona passed its law, AP reports, the number of licenses the three states issued to immigrants jumped 60 percent over the annual average for 2009.
For example, New Mexico passed out 10,257 licenses to immigrants from January to June, 2010. But it issued just 13,481 during 2009. And from April 24, the day after Arizona passed its law, through July 1, the state issued 417 licenses per week, the wire service reports. Before then, it issued 323 per week.
New Mexico does not distinguish between licenses issued to illegals or any other foreigner, AP reports. Neither apparently, does Washington, which gave 3,200 licenses to foreigners through June, compared with 5,992 for all of 2009.
Numbers for Utah were astonishing. Through June 7, it pumped out 41,000 licenses to illegals. During 2009, it issued 43,429. If this year’s pace continues, by December it will have issued twice as many nearly licenses to illegals as last year.
These three states may not know what they are in for. As The New American reported in 2007:
Highway homicide is a deadly and largely unknown aspect of illegal immigration, and data and horror stories from newspapers across the country show that the states with the highest numbers of illegals are, most likely, the most dangerous places to drive.
Indeed, Arizona became known as the “hit-kill-and-run state” because of its high number of hit-and-run fatalities. Again, as The New American reported, the data show a direct correlation between the states with the highest number of hit-and-run fatalities and the highest number of unlicensed drivers. In turn, states suffering with the highest number of unlicensed drivers also boast the highest number of illegal aliens.
The illegals in Utah, New Mexico, and Washington carry licenses, of course, so they might be safer drivers than those who don’t. But being illegal and fearing deportation, they would still have an incentive to leave the scene of a fatal wreck, particularly if drunk driving were the cause. Drunk driving is a serious and lethal problem among illegal aliens.
Photo: AP Images
