For Governor Bill Richardson or the legislators to allow everyone (including illegal aliens) to acquire drivers licenses in New Mexico abounds in foolishness. Why can’t New Mexico follow the rest of the country, issuing licenses to people who are legal residents/citizens?
The way the governor wants to do it would mean that to travel by plane you would not be able to present a drivers license as a legally issued photo ID issued by a state or federal entity as proof of legal residency/citizenship in the U S. Let’s say you are away from home when this law goes into effect (Jan. 1, 2010) and you need to fly home. You can’t use a New Mexico drivers license any longer because most airports will not accept them. What do you do now?
You can apply for an expedited passport if you are in Alaska and that will take even a few days, but your ticket in the meantime is only good for say two more days. This presents many problems that could have been avoided by just following the lead of the rest of the States. It would be ludicrous to imagine having to carry a passport to travel in the U.S.
Why can’t the state issue each person a photo ID that is a legal resident or a citizen, showing this on the ID? The state says the cost would be $12 dollars and would disenfranchise some people, creating a hardship on them. What would happen if that same person were in a similar circumstance, say in Alaska on vacation? Wouldn’t that we creating a hardship on that same person? The sane thing is not to allow illegal residents to have a New Mexico license. What kind of idiots have the people of this state elected to represent us?
Doyle Pruitt
Las Cruces