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Political Science - Immigration There Are a Essay
Pages:2 (828 words)
Sources:3
Subject:Politics
Topic:Political Science
Document Type:Essay
Document:#77341392
Political Science - Immigration
There are a number of important political and social issues facing the United States in this year of presidential politics, and immigration is among those key issues. Getting a driver's license is one particularly controversial issue relating to illegal immigrants. A Sacramento Bee story (Sanders, 2012) explains that legislation in California sponsored by Democrat Assemblyman Gil Cedillo will allow certain undocumented immigrants in the state to obtain driver's licenses. "It's important to all Californians that we have motorists who are licensed, tested and insured," Cedillo explains.
He went on to say that those immigrants who qualify for a driver's license "…are people who are going to be contributing to our economy by seeking work, or pursuing educational goals" (Sanders, p. 2). In other words, if illegal immigrants -- who wish one day to achieve citizenship but are not yet citizens -- wish to work, or are working, they are making a contribution to the American economy. California is a big state with numerous large cities and public transportation is not always available in those urban areas, so having the ability to drive a car is very important to any employed person.
Governor Jerry Brown has signed that legislation, allowing certain groups of illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses. According to Andrew Malcolm writing in Investors Business Daily, while the bill only affects certain "…undocumented young people in the nation," it will give those estimated "350,000 illegals" a "government-issued ID used to identify voters, although as non-citizens they are not so entitled" (Malcolm, 2012, p. 2). Clearly Malcolm is a supporter of Mitt Romney and uses this article to attack not just Governor Brown but President Barack Obama. Malcolm accepts Romney's rhetoric regarding immigration -- "Obama's failure" -- and Malcolm cynically mentions the fact that those eligible for driver's licenses must pay $31 for their licenses, which could "…reap the state almost $11 million in found money" (if all $350,000 eligible immigrants get licenses), as though it was a matter of raising revenue for California rather than bringing a sense of fairness and justice to certain immigrants who are eligible for the program (Malcolm, p. 2).
What Malcolm skipped over in terms of his explanation of why Brown signed this bill into law is the fact that at the national level, President Obama has issued an Executive Order that delays deportation for an estimated 800,000 immigrants who were brought into the U.S. By their parents (who were not legal immigrants). Obama…
Sample Source(s) Used
Works Cited
Los Angeles Times. (2012). Giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants: is Jerry Brown right?
Retrieved October 17, 2012, from http://latimesblogs.latimes.com.
Malcolm, Andrew. (2012). Gov. Jerry Brown OKs legal driver licenses for young illegals;
Denver debate fodder? Investor's Business Daily. Retrieved October 17, 2012, from http://www.investors.com.
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