In 2003, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius expressed support for allowing undocumented residents the chance to get Kansas driver’s licenses. Then and now, that was a sensible public-safety position, because it would have meant fewer unlicensed, uninsured drivers on Kansas roads. But federal law has since effectively nixed allowing such licenses. Now the question is whether GOP gubernatorial nominee Jim Barnett can use the old issue to paint Sebelius as soft on illegal immigration. By the way, the former proponents of this measure include Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, who said in 2001, “We do have people from outside America who are working hard in America. We need to find a way they can have driver’s licenses and buy car insurance.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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25 Comments
For every Democrat proposing a law for the illegals to be issued drivers license – there is at least one Republican that wants those same illegals to be able to work for cheap wages in order to keep Big Business making big profits to give to Republicans.
Yes
pathetic.
“Then and now, that was a sensible public-safety position, because it would have meant fewer unlicensed, uninsured drivers on Kansas roads.”
This is such an irresponsible statement, we can only hope that no one from the Eagle’s editorial board ever gets a job in any kind of public safety position!
First of all, undocumented residents, AKA illegal aliens, are, illegal. They don’t play by the same rules that everyone else does in this country.
Many, many illegals use fraudulent documents to procure identification and many maintain multiple identities. They choose this outlaw lifestyle to circumvent laws, not comply with them.
The notion that foreign nationals who have thumbed their noses at US immigration laws, live and work illegally in the US, will suddenly run out and buy car insurance if only they are given a state issued driver’s license is just silly.
Keep in mind, a driver’s license allows a person to buy a gun, vote and get on an airplane. Does the editioral board really believe it’s a good idea to issue driver’s licenses to “undocumented” residents, many of whom are using fraudulent ID documents? No one knows who these people are and neither does the Eagle’s editorial board.
The only way to fix the problem right, is for the millions of illegals in this county to take a number at the US Citizenship and Immigration Services office and get legal.
All immigrants to Kansas should be required to register within a few days of arriving. Wichita would be a good location for this. Identification would be established. Rules explained. Health needs and shots be taken care of. Some kind of indentification card be issued.
Wouldn’t this make sense?
Over the past five years or so, Wichita’s population has been basically stagnant. Yet the hispanic population has grown some 10%. This appears to say that without the influx of hispanics, Wichita would have lost 10% population. Perhaps large corporations should be exporting jobs to Wichita to meet their labor needs.
That isn’t true Jwink! Wichita wouldn’t have lost population. The Suburbs have grown significantly with Goddard being the fastest growing city in Kansas for several years straight. The hispanic population do not live in suburbia! So you’re wrong!
That being said, a friend of mine got rear-ended on Friday by a hispanic in a truck. The guy that rear-ended my friend did stop and get out, but he acted like he didn’t know any English when my friend was asking for insurrance and contact information. So my friend wrote down his licence plate number and the guy took off because my friend told him that he called the police.
When the police got to the scene, my friend told them the guy took off but he has his licence plate number. The police did a check and it came up invaild as being registared. Meaning it was a fake licence plate (not a stolen one or an out of date one). The police told my friend that there have been finding more incidents of fake licence plates that look like the real thing. He told my friend that it would be difficult re-locating this guy because he will probably put another fake plate up to replace the one he got caught with.
Sign of our times.
Jwink! The Wichita metro in the past 5 years grew over 16,000 people. Just to let you know and less than 5,000 were Hispanics.About 17% of the popultion growth.
Probably the Asian influx.
It’s like this…if they have legal immigration papers, like a green card, or temporary visa, by all means, let them get licenses. The rest, NO- THEY’RE ILLEGAL ILLEGAL ILLEGAL!
They should be kicked out and processed like everyone else! Why should they be treated over and above everyone else!? Why are they so special?
S.T.W.B!!!
Because Will, they are cheap labor and a future pool of potential Democrat voters. That is why both the Democrats and Republicans refuse to do anything about it.
Ugh! Guess what I said above was too true. We’ve gotta stop this madness, we are the citizens of the United States of America for Pete’s sake! If nobody can screw with us overseas, then we damn well shouldn’t be getting screwed at home!
S.T.W.B!!!
“Keep in mind, a driver’s license allows a person to buy a gun, vote and get on an airplane.”
Hammertime, the above statement isn’t completely accurate. You don’t have to have a driver’s license to vote. You don’t need a driver’s license to get on an airplane. You DO need a form of photo ID, but not necessarily a driver’s license. And you sure don’t need a driver’s license to buy an illegal gun. ;)
“Because Will, they are cheap labor and a future pool of potential Democrat voters.”
Joe,
If your statement is true, why hasn’t the Republican Congress been able to find a way to stop illegal immigration? Blaming Dems is nothing more than a scapegoat, and saying THEY are the ones who want that potentional vote is even more so. If I remember correctly, Bush campaigned heavily for the Hispanic vote, although I don’t remember him mentioning anything about illegals.
I know quite a lot of Dems who feel the same way I do about illegals. There are laws, and although the system isn’t working well–I’ve heard horror stories of money paid and papers lost, many times over during the immigration process–it’s still the law. If *I* break the law, I pay the price. Illegals break the law every day, but they’re being helped by businesses that not only hire them, but enable them in the process. When we (both Dems and Repubs and everybody in between) start enforcing the laws on the books, it will be a step forward. Perhaps when the ‘money train’ is closed off, we can then address the immigration process and see where the problems are.
Because of my views, I’ve been called ‘racist’ by people on both sides of the political aisle. I’m definitely NOT racist. I’d feel the same, no matter what race, color, religion, sexual persuassion, yada yada yada.
RD
Yeah I have the same experience, being called racist I mean.
I say round all illegals up and deport them. I mean this not just for Hispanics invading over our southern border but also for the increasing number of Asians slipping into the country on container ships.
If any Portuguese, Icelanders, or Marmalutes start becoming a significant part of the illegal immigration problem, I say deport them too.
The 8/20/06 issue of the Wichita EAGLE, by Icess Fernandez, the EAGLE’s education reporter, presented a rather extensive article about Wichita’s changing population. I thought it was interesting.
Quoting Mr. Fernandez: “The Trejo family is among nearly 10,000 Hispanics who have moved into Wichita since 2000, according to U.S. Census numbers. They were joined by 6,669 other foreign born people who move to Wichita.” When this article speaks of Wichita, it refers specifically to Wichita, not the suburbs. So 10,000 plus 6,669 is about 16,700 new foreign born people who have moved to Wichita in the five years since 2000-2001.
The article also says the total population of Wichita grew from 344,284 in 2000 to 354,582 in 2005. That is a total growth of Wichita of 10,300 in the same period that 16,700 foreign-born people moved into Wichita.
So, the way I analyze these figures, without the influx of the 16,700 foreign born people who moved into Wichita in the five year period, the population of Wichita would have dropped by 6,700 people during that five year period.
And if that population change stays steady, Wichita proper will lose 67,000 people by the year 2050.
Now, true, some of the 6,700 people might have moved out in to suburban Sedgwick County. But presumably some foreign-born people moved into the suburbs as well, say into Haysville, Derby, Valley Center, etc. I assume the inflow/outflow in the suburbs is a tie.
I also saved a clipping from another recent newspaper that says Kansas during the past FOUR years has suffered a loss of 11,469 people putting Kansas as number 43 among the 50 states in terms of net out-migration.
I am not sure what this demographic information means to Wichita. But it does appear that Wichita and some parts of Kansas need a net inflow of foreign born people to staff the hospitals, factories, construction companies, schools, and run small businesses … like the female Vietnamese tailor on south Seneca to whom I took some clothes recently.
What’s that saying — “the only thing constant is change.”
And another, “There’s many a slip twixt the cup and the lip.”Or as Humphrey Bogart said in the movie, Casablanca, “Destiny stepped in.” I guess we are waiting to see what the destiny is for Wichita.
Jwink
If native folks are leaving the city and the state, this is indicative that they are motivated to do so because of lack of opportunity or some other dislike for the area. Why not address that as opposed to embracing those who are willing to come here and replace them because they are satisfied with less?
Wanna know the future of Wichita? Third world city.
No license, just a bullet
But you have too look at the suburbs JWink! People who live there work in Wichita and the white flight continues. It’s just like Kansas City. People think that Johnson County is such a hot spot and people are moving there in droves, but practially all the people there are just people who moved away from Kansas City, KS/MO proper. The telling sign of Johnson County that it is 96% white, prodomently residential, and average incomes are in the $60K range. It has nothing to do with economic prosperty but white flight to suburbia.
It’s just the sign of our times. While Andover, Derby, Goddard are experience rapid growth, the white flight doesn’t mean that people are moving away from this area.
Sure! Mostly foreigners are coming in and that is true for every big city in the nation.
Joe W.: So the question is — is Sedgwick County growing or shrinking? And what percentage is from immigrants from other countries? I suspect the City/County’s planning department has the figures.
Since you mentioned Johnson County, I find it interesting but don’t have the figures at hand that the populations of Sedgwick County and Johnson County are running or were running neck and neck. I wonder how that comparative growth pattern is going? This situation could provide an interesting and friendly competition between the counties.
Also regarding the growth of Johnson County, its partially true that some of the growth was due, back in the 1970’s, to movement from the Missouri side. However, as a person who knows Johnson County very well, I also know a lot of the growth in Johnson County comes from outstate Kansas, from the small towns, from the middle size towns and from Wichita — people who want to find good jobs in the thousands of good companies that make Johnson County their home.
Johnson County is the economic muscle/driver for all of Kansas and the state is darn lucky to have it.
While we are at it let’s legalize felons to carry guns and legalize meth for schol kids. Why arrest anyone it’s such a hassle. Who needs law enforcement anyway it’s such a pain.
Joe,The “Great White Flight” hahaha!It sounds like you’re planning to write a book about it. What you described is nothing new. It happened to New York city about 40 years ago!
_The Nation_ articles I link on another thread (some of which are not complete; I apologize for that – but I guess leftists have to make money, too) provide profiles of people in Nashville who are against the rising immigrant population. Nashville was a city with one of the fastest growing immigrant popluation.
One anti-immigrant activist was of a very liberal persuation – her complaint was the corportate interests (cheap labor) was what was driving the flood of immigrants. Whereas, more right wing activists were from former construction businesses who refused to hire illegal aliens and they were driven out of business becasue their competitors could bid on jobs for much less due to their cheaper hispanic labor costs. Then there were folks like the guy who started the minute men guard groups – who just looked to be from assorted hate groups.
The diversity of the new nativists is pretty impressive.
Even though we are the melting pot of American, there has historically been American “natives” who are upset about various new immigrant groups. As examples – Pennsylvania and German immigrants in the late 18 century; most of New York and the Irish immigrants in the 1850’s – I am sure there are other examples.
Xenophobia of various forms is as American as apple pie.
Once again you get an idiot like the one upthread who fails to understand the difference between anti-immigrant sentiment which stems from xenophobia and anti-ILLEGAL immigrant sentiment which stems from the righteous indignation any people of any fucking country in the world would have if millions of people broke the laws by stealing into their country, getting government aid such as healthcare, education, and social security that is funded by the TAXPAYERS. Bottom line is: these illegal aliens are STEALING from the American taxpayer. So, Steven Davis, tell us what political party you vote for so that we Americans who are sick and tired of being robbed by Big Business assholes like yourself know who NOT to vote for.