A CALL FOR HELP FROM YOUR FELLOW CITIZENS
This morning, I participated in a citizen's rally at the Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA) facility near my home in Maryland. A group called Help Save Maryland (www.HelpSaveMaryland.com) had arranged these rallies at three different MVA sites for the same day – May 17th. Now you have to understand, I am 57, a professional manager, and haven't participated in a demonstration since college. I'm politically progressive and adopted my son from Guatemala.
I did my homework and spoke with the State Police the day before the rally. They advised me to check in with the State trooper on duty at the MVA when I arrived. The trooper, who had been alerted that we would come, cordially showed me where demonstrators stood a mulched area outside one corner of the building. I walked onto the mulch and held up my homemade signs "No drivers licenses for illegal aliens" and "No voter registration for illegal aliens." It was a beautiful, clear, Saturday morning.
I'm at the rally because Maryland is one of only four states that give drivers licenses to foreign nationals who are illegally in the United States. An illegal alien can get a Maryland driver's license simply by having a foreign driver's license – that's all! Or, an illegal alien with merely a foreign birth certificate, an auto registration card, and an apartment rental contract qualifies for a Maryland driver's license. There's no requirement to prove legal presence in the U.S.; and needless to say, I'ts relatively easy to forge an apartment lease.
Maryland MVA is giving drivers licenses to foreign nationals as fast as it can – 1,700 a week according to officials (if we can believe them they have the authority to give as many as 5,000 a week)! Maryland even pays Spanish translators to help illegal aliens apply for driver's licenses and offers a Spanish version of the driver's test to license applicants all at taxpayer's expense!
Now 5,000 a week totals 1.3 million in 5 years about of the State's population! Why on Earth does Maryland's government want to give drivers licenses to that many foreign nationals? Driver's licenses allow the holder to obtain credit cards, get on airplanes, rent vehicles, open bank accounts, and become (brace yourself for this one) REGISTERED VOTERS. An applicant for voter registration in Maryland needs only – that's right – a driver's license! Maryland government makes it easy for foreign nationals to break the law and yet has never initiated a serious investigation into whether illegal aliens are committing voter fraud. To further muddy the waters, at least one non-profit – CASA of Maryland (Central American Solidarity Association), which receives large grants from State and county governments – both openly supports illegal aliens AND provides voter registration assistance. Use your imagination about how a quid pro quo might flow to illegal-alien-friendly politicians. OK, back to my story.
Before 9 am, when our rally was scheduled to begin, I was joined by Tom, a 63, 240 lb, square-jawed, pony-tailed Tarzan of a man in a t-shirt and blue jeans. He had a home-made sign of his own and a good-size American Flag. Tom has been fighting illegal foreign nationals since the 1980s when the company he worked for in Texas fired their U.S. workers and replaced them with you-know-who's. Tom completed two years at community college, knows the Constitution, corresponds weekly with his Congressman and Senators, and has a popular website encouraging citizens to exercise their rights (www.takeaday.us).
After a few minutes of laughter and conversation, Tom and I were approached by the State trooper who said, "I'm sorry, sir, but it turns out that you need a permit to be here." I told him that I had a copy of the MVA policy pertaining to public access to MVA facilities, and that a permit is only needed to distribute literature. We weren't distributing literature, and the policy doesn't say we need a permit to display signs. "I'll tell the facility manager," he said.
Two minutes later an MVA official walks up to us and says, "You don't have a permit to be here." I got out my copy of the policy and noted that it contained nothing about needing a permit to display a poster. I tried to show him hard copies of e-mails sent to MVA officials asking them to send me any correction or clarification of the policy (e-mails to which I never received responses). At that point, an MVA patrol car pulled up; and the manager said, "Now listen. I am not going to argue with you. You don't have a permit and you need to leave now." The State trooper, the same one who first greeted me that morning, had a shocked look on his face.
To be honest, it wasn't a big deal for us to move 50 yards away to a public sidewalk. What IS important about this exchange is that it demonstrates how a bullying bureaucrat can and will simply make up a new policy on the spot to get what he or she wants. In Maryland, it's apparently OK for the government to harass American citizens and demand useless paperwork while IT breaks the law.
You see, Federal immigration law (8 USC Sec. 1324) states:
Any person who -
(iii) knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, conceals, harbors, or shields from detection, or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, such alien in any place, including any building or any means of transportation;
(v)(I) engages in any conspiracy to commit any of the preceding acts, or (II) aids or abets the commission of any of the preceding acts, shall be punished...
In other words, knowingly providing foreign nationals who are illegally here with drivers licenses is a violation of Federal law. While MVA officials in Maryland may be unaware of or may choose to be ignorant of U.S. statute, our elected officials, who steer the ship of State, can't plead ignorance. So why isn't the Federal government hauling the Maryland government into court? Because even our Federal government – meaning Maryland Senators and Congressmen, much of Congress and the President – appear to be co-conspirators with Maryland political leaders in a plot to enable massive illegal immigration. Like the bureaucrat who rewrote MVA policy, these elected officials, either consciously or unconsciously, are disregarding portions of the United States Constitution they don't like, in violation of their oath of office.
Fellow Citizens: both the rule-of-law and the United States Constitution are being trashed by our so called "representatives" in order to serve the needs of illegal aliens over us. The intended result is to turn the good State of Maryland into a badly bleeding, open border portal for foreign nationals entering the United States illegally. And they are doing this in spite of the mounting body of evidence that mass illegal immigration is both a fiscal drain on the average U.S. citizen and is inherently unfair to citizens and immigrants who play by the rules.
Back on the sidewalk alongside historic U.S. 1, Tom and I are joined by others including African Americans and even the Republican candidate for the 5th Congressional seat, Collins Bailey. Although many passing motorists honked in support and waved American flags, we also received "honk & finger" salutes from others, several barrages of shouted, four-letter expletives, and one Hispanic-looking man leaving the MVA who, with a Cheshire-cat smile, flaunted his brand new driver's license through his car window. This mockery less than 10 miles from our Nation's capital.
We Maryland citizens, abandoned by our own leaders, have a lot of work to do. But other States can help if for no other reason than to protect yourselves from illegal aliens entering under cover of Maryland driver licenses. For starters, y'all need to stop accepting Maryland driver's licenses as a form of ID when someone from Maryland applies for a driver's license in your state. It would also help if every U.S. citizen asked Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley to end licenses for illegals immediately. His contact information is on www.governor.maryland.gov/staff.asp.
Marylanders who want to stop our State government's preferential support of illegal aliens over U.S. citizens need to e-mail HelpSaveMaryland@yahoogroups.com.
One last thing, please e-mail this story to as many as you can, and please don't assume that they already have a copy.
Please, HELP SAVE MARYLAND! and HELP SAVE AMERICA!
Thank you,
Robert Fireovid
bob.fireovid@verizon.net
