This Just In ...

Wisconsin roads are filled with illegal immigrant drivers

Posted by Kevin Fischer on Dec. 30, 2009

Illegal immigration

If you missed it, the December 25, 2009 issue of Franklin Citizen re-published an article by Andy Szal and Jacob Kushner about the connection between illegal immigrants and the dairy/farming industry in Wisconsin.

Though the article leans to sympathizing with both dairy farmers in need of filling jobs and illegal immigrants needing to drive to get to those jobs, it provides some eye-openers for us legal Wisconsin residents beginning with this open:

“Drivers beware: There’s a woman driving a stretch of Interstate 90 between Sparta and Tomah — without a license or any training about Wisconsin’s traffic laws.

Her name is Victoria. She’s a 23-year-old undocumented immigrant from Mexico who works on a Tomah dairy farm with other undocumented immigrants whom she says ‘all understand our boss through signals’ because of language barriers.

Victoria, who arrived in Wisconsin 13 months ago, hasn’t taken any drivers’ training in the United States because Wisconsin law prohibits her from obtaining a license. She says she hasn’t had any run-ins with police, but requested that her last name be withheld out of fear she might be pursued as an illegal immigrant.

She is among a growing number of illegal immigrants who are finding work on Wisconsin dairy farms, located in rural areas where the only way to get to work is by car.”

Eyes not opened yet?

“Immigrants now account for about 40 percent of the state’s dairy labor force, up from just 5 percent a decade ago.”

Yeh, I know. I know. Nobody else wants those jobs. Not even in a recession. Right.

The writers refer to a failed attempt during the 2009-11 state budget process to create special limited driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants.

“It shows that neither the Republican Party nor the Democratic Party in Wisconsin or nationally have the intention to fix the problems that are most urgent to our people,” said Alex Gillis, co-founder of the Madison immigration rights group Immigrant Workers’ Union.

No, Mr. Gillis. It shows that illegal immigrants refuse to take the same steps that other immigrants have taken to become legal American citizens. That’s the problem.

Next eye-opener:

“State Department of Transportation data show that after the law requiring applicants to submit proof of legal residence took effect in 2007, the number of people taking the Spanish-language version of the road skills knowledge test plummeted 91 percent — from 42,500 in 2006 to fewer than 4,000 in 2008. The number of applicants taking the English version of the test also declined during the period, but by just 23 percent.”

Hmmmm......

Now it doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure out that since the law took effect, illegal Hispanic immigrants have gone into hiding, refusing to apply for licenses, petrified they will be nabbed red handed. Obviously, the fear of God has set in to law breakers who know they are breaking the law.

Balanced, the article isn’t.

Worth a read, it is.

So is this oldie but goodie from This Just In that caused quite a stir when I talked about it on WISN over two years ago.