Utah Drivers License Renewal: There Must be a Better Way to Do It

Recent legislation borders on the ridiculous and makes one question whether it’s worth it to live in Utah

By Dorrene Jeske

Usually I quite enjoy Charlie Trentelman’s columns, but today he "missed the boat” and jumped on the wrong bandwagon because of a co-worker’s outrage over the very bad driver’s license legislation passed by Utah legislators this year. In his article, “More fallout from ‘The List,’,” he blames those who mailed the infamous “illegal aliens list":

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Being a very astute person, I’m sure that Mr. Trentelman is aware that hundreds of thousands of people have had their I.D. compromised due to banking and credit card companies errors where that information was made available to unknown eyes. But because it is the popular thing to do in Utah at the moment, he jumped on Utah’s “Beat-up on the State employees” who unwisely distributed personal information and forget that many on that list are also guilty of breaking laws bandwagon.

When the Legislature in their role of playing God, dreamed up that nightmarish bill, they opened a can of worms that hasn’t yet revealed the potential havoc and disruption of citizens’ lives that is sure to surface. We have already experienced a piece of that nightmare. In June, my husband and I went to the Social Security Office to apply for new social security cards because after 50 years of marriage and several moves, I have no idea where our original SS cards are. I had no problem obtaining my card because I had my birth certificate, but it was a different story for my husband. He was born in Germany just before Hitler declared war on the world. All family records were destroyed in a fire during the war and all he has are some church documents and his passport issued when he and his family migrated to the U.S. legally in June of 1954. He also has his U.S. naturalization document when he became a citizen of the U.S. March 11, 1964 (our 4th wedding anniversary). He took this document to the Social Security Office because it also has his date of birth. In the meantime, INS has changed its naturalization certificate, and the young lady at the Social Security Office had never seen a certificate like his. She said that she would have to send it to be reviewed and determine its authenticity. A few weeks later, (I had received my new card) my husband received a letter from the SSA stating that they were researching the naturalization certificate and if they did not find it to be authentic, then he would need to resign from any job he had, and work with the Federal government to prove that he was in the U.S. legally. They did not say that he would be deported, but he would not be able to have a regular driver license, and could not enjoy many of the privileges that he has earned as a legal citizen of the U.S.

Of course, with my active imagination and luck, I could just see INS raising all kinds of problems for us and making us prove that he had entered the U.S. legally. I’m glad to say that he just received his social security card this week.

The Legislature needs to revisit this very bad piece of legislation. I understand their intent in passing it, but instead of stopping illegal immigrants from obtaining driver licenses (there are always forgers to give them the fake papers that they need), they are harassing citizens and making our lives miserable in order to obtain a driver’s license. People who live out of state cannot believe that we are required to prove our address with a utility bill, show our Social Security card, birth certificate and marriage certificate.

I’ve always been grateful that I live in Utah and wouldn’t consider living any place else, but this legislation borders on the ridiculous and makes one question whether it’s worth it to live in Utah.

So, Charlie, ask your co-worker if it isn’t this new requirement that has her upset. We all know that our personal information can be compromised at any time because there are corrupt and evil people who will find ways to get around the security used by financial and government agencies. And I hope the Legislature comes to their senses and can come up with a better way to control the illegals living in our State without harassing the citizens.

A Straightforward Editorial Screed From Charlie Daniels

Charlie D. doesn't know how everybody else feels about it, but he evidently believes Hispanic people in this country, legally or illegally, made a huge public relations mistake with their recent demonstrations

One of our most respected Weber County Forum readers sent us this via email; and yes, we've already checked it out with Snopes; and we therefore believe this is legit. Inasmuch as very many of our readers seem interested in discussing the "illegal immigration" situation, here we go. We'll therefore let this article serve as this afternoon's WCF Immigration Discussion Launching Pad:

Charlie Daniels "Mexican Standoff" Editorial

By: Charlie Daniels

I don't know how everybody else feels about it, but to me I think Hispanic people in this country, legally or illegally, made a huge public relations mistake with their recent demonstrations.

I don't blame anybody in the world for wanting to come to the United States of America, as it is a truly wonderful place.

But when the first thing you do when you set foot on American soil is illegal it is flat out wrong and I don't care how many lala land left heads come out of the woodwork and start trying to give me sensitivity lessons.

I don't need sensitivity lessons, in fact I don't have any-thing against Mexicans! I just have something against criminals and anybody who comes into this country illegally is a criminal and if you don't believe it try coming into America from a foreign country without a passport and see how far you get. What disturbs me about the demonstrations is that it's tanta-mount to saying, "I am going to come into your country even if it means breaking your laws and there's nothing you can do about it."

It's an "in your face" action and speaking just for me, I don't like it one little bit and if there were a half dozen pairs of gonads in Washington bigger than English peas it wouldn't be happening.

Where are you, you bunch of lily livered, pantywaist, forked tongued, sorry excuses for defenders of The Constitution? Have you been drinking the water out of the Potomac again? And even if you pass a bill on immigration it will probably be so pork laden and watered down that it won't mean anything anyway Besides, what good is another law going to do when you won't enforce the ones on the books now?

And what ever happened to the polls, guys? I thought you folks were the quintessential finger wetters. Well you sure ain't paying any attention to the polls this time because somewhere around eighty percent of Americans want some thing done about this mess, and mess it is and getting bigger everyday.

This is no longer a problem, it is a dilemma and headed for being a tragedy. Do you honestly think that what happened in France with the Muslims can't happen here when the businesses who hire these people finally run out of jobs and a few million disillusioned Hispanics take to the streets?

If you, Mr. President, Congressmen and Senators, knuckle under on this and refuse to do something meaningful it means that you care nothing for the kind of country your children and grand-children will inherit. But I guess that doesn't matter as long as you get re-elected. Shame on you. One of the big problems in America today is that if you have the nerve to say anything derogatory about any group of people (except Christians) you are going to be screamed at by the media and called a racist, a bigot and anything else they can think of to call you

Well I've been pounded by the media before and I'm still rockin' and rollin' and when it comes to speaking the truth I fear not. And the truth is that the gutless, gonadless, milksop politicians are just about to sell out the United States of America because they don't have the intestinal fortitude (huevos) to stand up to face reality.

And reality is that we would never allow any other group of people to have 12 million illegal in this country and turn around and say, "Oh it's ok, ya'll can stay here if you'll just allow us to slap your wrist."

And I know that some of you who read this column are saying "Well what's wrong with that?" I'll tell you what's wrong with it. These people could be from Mars as far as we know. We don't know who they are, where they are or what they're up to and the way the Congress is going we're not going to.

Does this make sense? Labor force you say? We already subsidize corporate agriculture as it is, must we subsidize their labor as well? If these people were from Haiti would we be so fast to turn a blind eye to them or if they were from Somalia or Afghanistan ? I think not.

All the media shows us are pictures of hard working Hispanics who have crossed the border just to try to better their life. They don't show you pictures of the Feds rounding up members of MS 13, the violent gang who came across the same way the decent folks did. They don't tell you about the living conditions of the Mexican illegal some fat cat hired to pick his crop.

I want to make two predictions.

No. 1: This situation is going to grow and fester until it erupts in violence on our streets while the wimps in Washington drag their toes in the dirt and try to figure how many tons of political hay they can make to the acre.

No 2: Somebody is going to cross that border with some kind of weapon of mass destruction and set it off in a major American city after which there will be a backlash such as this country has never experienced and the Capitol building in Washington will probably tilt as Congressmen and Senators rush to the other side of the issue.

I don't know about you but I would love to see just one major politician stand up and say, "I don't care who I make mad and I don't care how many votes I lose, this is a desperate situation and I'm going to lead the fight to get it straightened out." I don't blame anybody for wanting to come to America, but if you don't respect our immigration laws why should you respect any others? And by the way, this is America and our flag has stars and stripes. Please get that other one out of my face.

(That's how you do it, son.)

Let's just say we're publishing this article with great trepidatiom, people. So please show your good manners and play nice.

(This message has been brought to you by GEICO, btw.)