As reported by many news organizations yesterday, Congress appears ready to “discourage” driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants. The LA Times reports:

Congressional negotiators agreed Monday to measures that would discourage states from issuing driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, tighten asylum requirements and complete the border fence between California and Mexico, sources involved in the talks said.

The agreement by House and Senate negotiators made it all but certain that the measures would become law.

Under the legislation, driver’s license applicants would have to take more information with them to motor vehicle offices. They would be asked to show birth certificates, a photo identification, proof of their Social Security number and a document with full name and home address. It was unclear how the legislation would affect renewal of licenses for citizens and legal residents.

The negotiators also agreed to a provision that supporters said would keep terrorists from using asylum laws to gain entry to the United States. The revisions would require asylum seekers to offer more proof that they were fleeing persecution and would limit their right to judicial review if their petition were rejected by immigration officials.

This is an unmitigated disaster. Yes, I know that being an illegal immigrant is breaking the law, but this horrible piece of legislation is NOT the right way to deal with it. South Asian cabbies (many of whom might be illegal) are now going to be breaking the law by driving without a license in an attempt to put food on their family’s table. What’s more is that legal residents are undoubtedly going to have to pay higher car insurance rates. ALL illegal immigrants that require a driver’s license for work (and there are a countless number) are now going to drive without one rather than risk going to the DMV and getting deported (or thrown in jail indefinitely as material witnesses). That’s a hell of a lot of uninsured drivers on the road.

…this agreement was of little solace to opponents of the immigration-related measures, such as the American Civil Liberties Union. Tim Sparapani, the group’s legislative counsel, predicted that Americans would be shocked by the breadth of the driver’s license proposal that takes effect three years after the bill’s passage.

The legislation says that “beginning three years after the date of the enactment of this act, a federal agency may not accept, for any official purpose, a driver’s license or identification card issued by a state to any person unless the state is meeting the requirementsÂ…. ”

Sparapani said that “citizens of states that haven’t made the changes won’t be able to board a flight, take a train, enter a federal courthouse or even go to a Social Security building” if they use their state-issued driver’s license as identification.

You got that? If you live in California, where this kind of an abomination would be hard to pass, your state would be in violation of a federal law and you wouldn’t be able to board a plane. The Baltimore Sun opines:

Extremists in the House, such as F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. of Wisconsin, may think they’re making the country safer, but the effect of these unworkable and rigid standards could be quite the opposite. Certainly, it would harm undocumented immigrants and the communities where they live. It’s an immigrant-haters’ vision of immigration policy - make it impossible for the undocumented to hold a job, rent or own a car, or open a bank account. It wouldn’t send these millions of people away, of course. It would just make life harsher for them - and ensure their poverty.

Damn straight.