More than half of driver\u2019s licenses issued by California this year have gone to noncitizens illegally residing in the Golden State.<\/p>\n
Since January, approximately 397,000 illegal aliens have passed both the written and driving parts of the exam, making up 52 percent of the state\u2019s newly licensed drivers.<\/p>\n
More than 1.1 million illegal aliens have attempted the written test and 436,000 have taken the driving test, doubling previous years\u2019 numbers.<\/p>\n
Although DMV officials expected<\/a> 1.4 million applications in the first three years of the program, they are 75 percent to goal in just the first nine months.<\/p>\n The surge is the result of enactment of a 2013 bill \u2013 Assembly Bill 60<\/a> \u2013 which requires the Department of Motor Vehicles to issue a driver\u2019s license to an applicant despite his or her ability to provide proof of legal presence in the country.<\/p>\n \u201cOur roads are now safer knowing 400,000 people who were likely already driving are licensed and insured,\u201d Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville, told<\/a> the Sacramento Bee.<\/p>\n But wouldn\u2019t California\u2019s roads be even safer if they did not have any unlawfully present people driving on them?<\/p>\n Handing out driver\u2019s licenses does not improve public safety. To the contrary, it encourages more illegal immigration because it tells lawbreakers they will not be prosecuted for breaking our federal immigration laws.<\/p>\n In order to get illegal immigration under control, we must do away with programs that entice millions of people to come here through illegal means. It\u2019s time for illegal alien driver\u2019s licenses to get the boot.<\/p>\n