A driver’s license is a ticket to American freedom. Not a constitutional right, but a state-regulated privilege, it’s a rite of passage for all Americans, conferring the ability to go where and when one wants.
It’s also a passport to other means of transportation, government benefits, events and voting. For most, it’s our identification, something we can check to know ourselves, and a trusted document by which others might know us.
Losing one’s license through bad driving or old age is something of a disaster. But then again, so is driving without one, particularly if you’re an illegal immigrant driving a semi. Recent accidents with illegal alien drivers, many resulting in the deaths of innocents, have raised many questions. Until recently the most pressing among them have been: how the hell do illegals get commercial driver’s licenses? That’s hard enough for actual Americans.
Now the question is: “how the hell do illegals get commercial driver’s licenses with no name listed?!
Graphic: Oklahoma Highway Patrol. Public Domain.
On Monday, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt tweeted a picture of a New York state commercial driver’s license his officers seized during an “enforcement action” on an interstate highway.
The name on this official state document, found on one of 125 illegal-immigrant drivers apprehended by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol: “No Name Given.”
As Richard Barth, then assistant secretary for policy development at the Department of Homeland Security, told the Senate in March 2007, the terrorists found it easy to fraudulently obtain driver’s licenses and state-issued IDs.
Take Hani Hanjour, the Saudi national who hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 and flew it into the Pentagon that morning, killing 184 innocents. He had IDs from three different states.
Those US-issued IDs, Barth noted, “enabled the hijackers to maneuver throughout the United States in order to plan and execute critical elements of their mission” — allowing them to “rent cars, travel, take flying lessons and board airplanes.”
“The 9/11 hijackers evidently believed that holding driver’s licenses and ID cards would allow them to operate freely in our country,” he chillingly concluded. “And they were right.”
Yes, they were, so in 2005 Congress passed the REAL ID Act. It established national standards for driver’s license issuance, and mandates for specific information on each license including the bearer’s full legal name. REAL ID compliant documents include a star in the upper right-hand corner.
So what? New York is a socialist, anti-America utopia. They break immigration and other laws every day of the week. It’s no surprise they’d pull a stunt like this. What’s the big deal? It is a big deal, and New York isn’t alone:
California, which is arguably a worse anti-America, anti-law and order state, is doing the same thing:
Graphic: X Post
Semis are our primary means of commercial transportation. They go everywhere, including sensitive facilities, even nuclear facilities. They carry all manner of dangerous, toxic cargo. A truck bomb the size of a semi could do horrific damage, and New York, of all places, apparently thinks giving illegals with no identification and no name licenses is a good way to stick a thumb in President Trump’s eye.
As Trump said, they’re not after him. They’re after us. He’s just in the way.
States like New York and California give illegals all manner of benefits, many of which aren’t available to Americans. Any American applying for a CDL must provide all manner of documents, including proof of identity, a federal DOT medical certificate, proof of passing a hazardous materials test, proof of passing a certified driving course, a driving skills test, and a variety of other state-required steps. Obviously, if one isn’t a natural born American, proof of naturalization or proof of legal residency and the ability to work are required. But above all, how can any state issue a driver’s license, to say nothing of a CDL, if they have no idea of the identity of the person applying?
Name please?
I got no name.
You don’t have a name?
I got no name.
Do you speak English?
I got no name.
Great. Sign here, Mr. No Name. Can I call you “I got?”
What’s next? California and New York declaring sanctuary trucker status? Illegal alien CDL drivers with no names flocking to those states?
If New York and California were waging war on America, what would they be doing differently?
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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.