CASA Sues Maryland MVA, Demands DL for Illegals
 

Tiny Human Ferret wrote:
> http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/loc...1,929209.story
>
> <quote in-part>
>
> MVA sued over licensing barriers
> Agency accused of imposing illegal burdens
> on immigrants seeking driver's licenses
>
> By Sumathi Reddy
> Sun reporter
> Originally published November 16, 2005
>
> A statewide immigrant advocacy group filed a
> lawsuit yesterday against the Maryland
> Motor Vehicle Administration, charging it with
> creating illegal barriers to immigrants trying
> to obtain driver's licenses.
>
> The lawsuit - filed in Baltimore City Circuit Court
> on behalf of 13 immigrants - contends that the
> agency's actions violate state and federal laws.
>
> Immigrants and members of CASA of Maryland held up signs
> and chanted alternately in English and Spanish
> while announcing the suit against the MVA,
> the state Department of Transportation and its top officials.
>
> The "lawlessness" of the MVA, said Steven Smitson,
> legal director of CASA, at a news conference
> in front of the MVA's Glen Burnie headquarters,
> "has caused serious economic harm to the Latino
> and immigrant community."
>
> MVA officials declined to comment on the lawsuit
> without being presented with a copy of it, but
> a spokesman defended many of the policies attacked at the news conference.
>
> "Our requirements for licensing any individual is
> basically the same," said Buel Young. "We require
> proof of identity, proof of age and proof of Maryland residency
> for any individual. The difference is if you are
> an American citizen, you have a birth certificate"
> and other documents.
>
> "For someone that's an immigrant, they present
> a myriad of documents ... and we have to
> determine the authenticity of these documents.
> That can require some time," Young said.
>
> Maryland is currently one of 10 states that allows
> foreign-born residents -- regardless of their immigration status --
> to receive driver's licenses. But CASA officials
> accuse the MVA of failing to follow its own policies
> by routinely and unlawfully denying immigrants
> driver's licenses and permits.
>
> The lawsuit contends that the MVA
> treats immigrants differently by creating a cumbersome process
> that requires them to schedule appointments
> to apply for licenses and limits the offices they can go to,
> causing them sometimes to wait months and
> travel long distances.
>
> Smitson referred to "horror stories" that have
> emerged from driver's license education forums
> CASA has held with more than 15,000 immigrants
> across the state, including:
>
> -- Immigrants who have had to wait months for MVA appointments.
>
> -- Appointments at which no interpreters were available.
>
> -- Documents proving residency and identification that were unfairly
> rejected.
>
> -- MVA employees who have called federal immigration officials.
>
> [ Those employees need a RAISE! --klaatu]
>
> The common thread in all the stories, Smitson said,
> is that they ended with an immigrant being
> denied a driver's license, with no recourse for an appeal.
>
> Two of the lawsuit's plaintiffs spoke at the news conference.
>
> Margaret Mengly Peredo Echalar, a 23-year-old Laurel resident,
>
> [ Of unspecified immigration status... --klaatu]
>
> said she moved to the United States 3 1/2 years ago
> from Bolivia to go to college and get a good job.
> But her inability to get a driver's license made it
> too difficult to travel. "I lost the best job and
> I can't go to school," said Echalar.
>
> Echalar said that after repeatedly going to
> different MVA offices, she was denied a learner's permit
> and accused of identification fraud
> because the name she was going to use did not exactly match
> the one on her passport.
>
> [ Another MVA employee deserves a raise! --klaatu]
>
> She said employees called immigration officials.
> Young said the MVA does not call immigration officials
> unless the equipment to determine the authenticity
> of foreign documents is broken.
>
> [ Or, perhaps, if it looks like someone's trying to do an identity-theft
> or document fraud? --klaatu]
>
> Echalar had to quit a secretarial job in Washington
> and now works at a restaurant. She is unable to start school
> at Howard Community College, where she hopes to study psychology.
>
> CASA officials noted that the issue affects legal
> and undocumented immigrants alike.
>
> Jose V. Hernandez Araujo, also a plaintiff in the lawsuit,
> is a green card holder who came to the United States
> from El Salvador 18 years ago.
>
> Speaking in Spanish at the news conference, Araujo said
> he held a New York driver's license. But when he moved
> to Maryland and went to the MVA, his proof of residency
> was rejected and both his New York license and Maryland
> identification cards were confiscated.
>
> "So here I am now. And I don't have my New York license,
> and I don't have my ID card, and I'm just waiting,"
> Araujo said. "I think there are many others like me."
>
> </quote>
>
>
> Maryland has an estimated 200,000 illegal aliens, with the majority
> originating in spanish-speaking countries in Central America and South
> America. We should note in passing that according to a recent statement
> to _the Washington Post_, high-ranking personnel with the Washington DC
> Embassy of El Salvador declare that there are probably twice that many
> from El Salvador alone.
>
> Maryland is one of the very few remaining States of the US which allows
> resident foreign nationals to get a State DL or ID. Maryland's State
> Legislature has, in recent years, seen the introduction of a variety of
> legislation designed to make the State less of a well-known "magnet" and
> "sanctuary State".
>
> Various Delegates to the State Legislative Assembly have gone on record
> with their statements that they would "drag their feet" in voting
> compliance with the Federal mandate of the REAL ID Act which is already
> law. Many of the documents required by the Maryland Motor Vehicle
> Administration are mandated directly by the REAL ID Act.
>
> CASA of Maryland, a notorious "pro-immigrant" front-group loosely
> associated with the radical socialist Chavez administration of Venezuela
> (itself associated with Communist Cuba's Castro regime), appears to be
> trying to sue Maryland's MVA into noncompliance with Federal Law.
>
> We should applaud the MVA for taking steps to be in compliance with
> Federal law, and taking those steps successfully within their limited
> budget, making a total lie out of the statements of several Montgomery
> County Democratic Party Delegates, in which they categorized REAL ID as
> (paraphrased) "a hideously expensive unfunded mandate with immense and
> perhaps unsurmounted technological hurdles". Yet somehow the Maryland
> MVA is already partially in compliance with REAL ID by taking strict
> measures to assure the validity of the documents on the basis of which
> they issue the Maryland Driver's License and Non-Driver ID.
>
> Marylanders can breathe more easily knowing that their driver's license
> isn't considered "a pushover" and "eminently exploitable with just the
> least little bit of fraud" as was Virginia DL, which was chosen by the
> 9/11 hijackers because of Virginia DMV's lax regulations and requirements.
>
> It should be a matter of pride to Marylanders that a socialist front
> group is so desperate to sue to make the Maryland DL into a "well known
> security gap". But it's time for the citizens of Maryland to get on the
> phone to their Delegates and demand that they pass legislation funding
> accelerated full compliance with the Federal REAL ID Act.
>
> Maryland could easily become a complete laughingstock and once-again
> deserve the label of "most corrupt State government" if it allows
> commies fronting for Cuba to sue the State into noncompliance with
> Federal law.
>
>
>
>
> --
> The incapacity of a weak and distracted government may
> often assume the appearance, and produce the effects,
> of a treasonable correspondence with the public enemy.
> --Gibbon, "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"
> nam primi in omnibus proeliis oculi vin****ur.
> ================================================== ================
> "Sometimes, Evil drives a mini-van."
> --Desperate Housewives

If we had a government worth a **** these illegal alien ****skins would
be detention centers that would make the accomadations for terrorists
seem palatial!

Jay