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Tim Bryant, host: As I understand it, passed in the senate, died in the house, uh, would have changed the way these undocumented immigrants are documented for driving purposes for driving in Georgia. What would that have done, and assuming you try it again next year, what will it do?
Sen. McKoon:[00:01:00] Well, we uh, were originally were just trying to outright prohibit the issuance of any driving document to folks without legal uh, status. And so, we wound up compromising and agreeing on allowing a driver’s safety card to issue to these individuals so they could at least drive, but it would be distinguishable from the drivers licence that’s issued to uh, Georgia citizens. And the reason for that being, you and I both know a driver’s licence isn’t just used uh, to be a be able to show that you’re lawfully able to drive, it’s used, sort of the gold standard of identification. In my line of work as a an attorney I have to present a driver’s licence to enter the secure area of a federal courthouse, people use them to rent cars, purchase explosives, um, there are all kinds of uses for a Georgia driver’s licence and the fact that we were simply, and are continuing now to issue them to people who we really can’t verify who they are or where they’re from is a serious public safety concern.
Tim Bryant: And evidently we’re going to do more of that now. The settlement this week, and it’s bring us up to today, the Georgia Drivers Services Department, what we used to call the DMV, has stopped asking immigrants who have federal work permits and are applying for green cards to submit proof of legal admission before they can get state driver’s licences. That’s a court settlement. They don’t have to document themselves for the purpose of getting those keys to the kingdom, that driver’s licence you’re talking about.
Sen. McKoon:[00:02:00] Exactly. And, and keep in mind that every illegal alien who has received deferred action from President Obama fits this category. They’ve all been given federal work permits, they’ve all been give social security numbers, conceivably all of them could be applying for permanent resident status. And that’s over 100,000 people in Georgia alone, so the notion that this is just about a handful of people who are here legally is not true. Um, we’re talking about people who have never been able to demonstrate that they were, uh, that they were in the United States legally, but now essentially the drivers, uh department of drivers services is going to be forced to issue these, and it’s because of our failure to pass legislation like senate bill six. The legislature needs to act on this, I understand why DDS entered into this settlement because frankly under current state law they didn’t have, uh, a good leg to stand on legally. So we need to give them that by passing senate bill six, or a bill like it next year.
[00:03:00]Jennifer Pointer co-host:Senator McKoon, uh, do you think it is um, not an an upside to this, or an upside that at least if the illegal aliens have driver’s licence, we’ll know their address, we’ll know… we’ll have their picture ID, we’ll know their location, and so we have more of a, I guess a track record on them than we do now.
Sen. McKoon:[00:04:00] I think that, y’know, there’s some assumptions being made there about what information is provided and the accuracy of the information that’s being provided. I mean there’s a lot of well documented, uh, cases where these licences are being issued to people and then they’re used, they’re attempted to be used to cast votes. North Carolina had a big problem with that. We’re also again issuing these identity cards to people who, y’know we don’t really know where they’re from. We don’t really know their background, and frankly I think that creates other security issues. So, I think that the dangers of issuing these licences far outweigh any marginal benefit for the few that might accurately report where they’re living on the driver’s licence.
Tim Bryant: No, we have to connect a lot of dots it seems to me Senator McKoon, to make the voter fraud case. [2] You referenced concerns about that in North Carolina [3]. What what we have to do I think, or what we have to believe is that you gotta, you’ve some kind of concerted effort to get people to get people to enter this country illegally, that is not without some risk, to get here, to go through the process of getting themselves a driver’s licence for the purposes of illegally registering to vote, and then going and actually casting ballots. That’s a lot of stuff. I mean are many people, is there a concern that many people are going to be doing that?
McKoon:[00:05:00] Well, as I said, there were documented cases of this happening in North Carolina. Is that the only reason people are trying to get these driver’s licences, absolutely not. Uh, but again, the question we’ve got to start asking ourselves is, y’know drive- the issuance of a Georgia driver’s licence is not a right, its a privilege. And the notion that we’re going to hand them out not just to people who aren’t citizens but to people who came into the country illegally and who still do not have lawful status in the country, uh, to me is just uh, it’s bad public policy. And I think its part of a sort of incremental move by folks on the left to erode any distinction of citizenship.
[00:06:00] We’ve seen out in California these moves now to allow illegal aliens to actually stand for local elected offices. We’re seeing moves here in Georgia to draw districts, uh, commission districts in Gwinnett county, in part based on the population of illegal aliens in Gwinette county. Uh, we saw a bill last year that was offered by Brad [Rathensburger 00:05:50] to limit boards and commissions uh memberships to US citizens that couldn’t get passed through the general assembly. All these things in my opinion are part of a broader agenda uh by open borders activists, and people that essentially want to erode any distinction that’s made between a US citizen, and someone who’s broken our law to enter the country illegally.
Jennifer Pointer: So Senator McKoon, are those some of the dangers that you were talking about earlier when you said that you think the dangers of this uh, outweigh the benefits?
McKoon:[00:07:00] Yes, I mean I think that’s definitely part of it. I think part of it, it’s very real uh, the concern from a security standpoint, uh that someone who comes into the country illegally, uh, intending to do harm to this country, intending to commit some kind of act of terrorism. Uh, for them to be able to get their hands on a driver’s licence and access secure areas of government buildings, rent vehicles, purchase explosives, those are all things that we, we ought to be trying to prevent. We should not be uh, making ourselves an even more soft target than we already are. And so, again, to issue these driver’s licences where the average citizen’s got to go get their original birth certificate, social security card, there are all these real…
Jennifer Pointer: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Sen. McKoon: …ID requirements, all these illegal aliens have to do is go to the consulate, get some identity documents issued and plop ’em before DDS and bam, they’ve got a driver’s licence. That just doesn’t make common sense, and so that’s why, y’know, we’ll be coming back next year, uh, myself and other legislators, to try and tighten up our laws, so that, uh, right now I think that the number is over 20,000 illegals that have these driver’s licence, by the end of the year maybe that number is double because of this decision.
Tim Bryant: All right, Senator Josh McKoon, you answered the question I was gonna ask, another bite out of the apple that is senate bill six, or something very much like it in 2017, you’re planning for that?
[00:08:00]
Sen. McKoon:Absolutely, I mean I think this is a real and present danger, I think it’s something that we’ve got to address for the multiple reasons we’ve talked about this morning, um, and whether it’s myself sort of leading the charge on it or other members of the general assembly. A number of general assembly members have contacted me since this decision issued, there’s a lot of new interest in this, so I certainly expect well see it next year.
Tim Bryant: Senator Josh McKoon, thanks so much for your time this morning.
Jennifer Pointer: Yes, thank you.
Sen. McKoon: Thank you for having me.