Monday, May 4th the Columbus Dispatch had an Editorial “Tighten ID process: Bureau of Motor Vehicles makes it too easy for people to commit fraud“. The opening line:
“Ohio is known to illegal immigrants as the place to go to score an easy ID, and that’s unacceptable.”
This statement is offensive in all kinds of ways. First no one is illegal, you don’t rob a bank and become an illegal, you committed a crime–that was illegal. If you enter a country without proper documentation that is illegal, you as a person are not illegal.
Second, Ohio is NOT known as state where it is easy to get a State ID. There are states were you can legally obtain state IDs without being a documented citizen. Why would you go to a different state where you would be committing fraud to get an ID when you could go to any state that legally offers a legit ID?
The Dispatch goes on to address a worker at the BMV who was charged with
“..processing hundreds of Ohio ID cards for illegal immigrants between 2004 and 2007. People would bring Puerto Rican birth certificates and Social Security cards and would communicate through a translator.”
“…She testified that a “no racial profiling” rule imposed by the BMV prevented questioning of this flood of people bringing her Puerto Rican documents. If that’s true, this is a case of political correctness trumping common sense.”
It is common sense to think Ohio doesn’t have a Puerto Rican population? Nor that it has had an increase in Puerto Ricans?
I call BS. For example let us take note of Puerto Ricans from Lorain Ohio.
What the dispatch did was racist. Instead of adequately addressing faults in the BMV’s operation, it instead pointed a finger at the Latino community and said “Look at all them illegals! Those law breakers!” and wrote an article that only propagated a stereotype that some how Puerto Ricans and “Illegals” are the same thing, and oh don’t forget so are those that don’t speak English!
- My personal experience with the BMV and Puerto Rican Birth Certificates -
I received a phone call from a Puerto Rican woman asking if she could pay me to translate her birth certificate from Spanish to English in order for her to get her drivers license. I explained she really didn’t need to hire me, that the BMV had to accept her birth certificate. She shared with me her tribulations at the BMV and her failure to have them understand that Puerto Ricans are US citizens and her certificate was valid. I asked her which office she had gone to and then called them on her behalf. The person that answered knew exactly of the case I was calling about and told me that they required that all documents be in English.
I called the Puerto Rican woman back offered to translate the document for her and gave her the phone number to her congressional representative, encouraged her to talk to an aid who would call the BMV on the behalf of the congressional representative (I used to have that job—you wouldn’t believe how fast you can get through red tape when you say “I am calling from Representative Smith’s office”).
When I received the document, I rather quickly noticed that under every Spanish heading, in smaller text, it was in English (ie Place of Birth – Lugar de Nacimiento). I called the woman back and told her not to bother having it translated and to just point out the English text…something no one had looked at.
Ohio is not an easy place to get a drivers license (there are states where it is easy or at least comparably easier). If Ohio were smart we would allow those without Social Security Numbers to get drivers licenses after going through the same process as everyone else (required testing, required insurance). Without the ability to get a drivers license or car insurance, the state of Ohio is only encouraging undocumented citizens of Columbus to drive without insurance and to flee whenever an accident happens.