Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

License issue needs real solution

So here comes a critic from Alamogordo who won't divulge his last name and therefore I won't use his first. Let's call him "This Guy."

This Guy laments a recent column here opining New Mexico's law allowing an illegal immigrant to obtain a driver's license is a good law and should stand.

"Reading your article made me think this has to be a joke. No one with half a brain could be this stupid, but I think you have proved me wrong," he writes.

Actually, This Guy has a valid point. Had I a whole brain, certainly I would be half as stupid. But that starts to sound like one of those mathematical brains teasers. I never could figure those out.

If the preponderance of reader response is any indication, I haven't figured out the immigration issue either. Most of it fell in the "what part of 'illegal' don't you understand?" category. Consider the following thought: You know you live in Upside-down Land if you can get arrested for expired tags on your car but not for being in the country illegally.

Well, there you go.

Just when I got to feeling like a soccer ball came relief from Dr. Richard Sonnenfeld, a New Mexico Tech professor, who indicated I am on the right track and urged me to keep up the good fight. So I will.

Let's start by conceding there are thousands of immigrants in New Mexico who are here illegally. And let's put aside, for the moment at least, the temptation to call one another idiot lefties and crass conservatives, as tempting as that might be. Instead, let's all be pragmatists for this exercise.

Of the approximate 80,000 illegals in New Mexico, about 75 percent are of Mexico origin. And while no one sent them an engraved invitation, our economy did much the same by dangling employment opportunities. They did not come here for the weather.

How does the pragmatist approach this dilemma? Put all these people in jail? Round them all up and put them on buses for deportation? That doesn't make sense and it is not likely to happen.

Therefore, it would seem the pragmatic solution might be, first, seal the border tighter than a hangman's noose to halt the flow, second, adopt social measures that will encourage immigrants already here to be productive citizens, and, third, insist on a national immigration policy that makes sense.

Reader Nancy Miller of Bayard is a pragmatic thinker. She writes New Mexico could issue special licenses specifically for driving. They would not be used as identification for getting on an airplane, or cashing a check, or buying alcohol. "Sort of like fishing license permits one to fish," says Nancy, or "a marriage license permits a couple to marry."

That makes sense to me. Identify illegal immigrants among us who are contributing members of society, who need to drive for the reasons all of us need to drive. Surely we can find a way to keep car keys out of the hands of bank robbers and terrorists.

If our illegal immigrants are here, and are likely to stay here, don't we want them working to provide for their families? If one can't adopt that premise simply out of human compassion, can't one see that it also serves the selfish interests of New Mexico?

Maybe not. That Guy points out "the claim that illegal immigrants need a driver's license to get to their jobs is as weak as they come," and he suggests I get off my "political horse and do something positive," but, "oh, wait, you are a liberal so that is not possible."

Being liberal is certainly a serious detriment. But not nearly as serious as having half a brain.

Ned Cantwell wonders if an eastbound Amtrak going 150 mph leaves Los Angeles at the same time a westbound train going 130 mph leaves Chicago, at what point will…oh, never mind. He can be reached at [email protected]