1-26-05 By Taft Wireback, Staff Writer News & Record Topics: Licenses, Security, DMV, illegal aliens North Carolina examiners should not aggressively investigate illegal immigrants who might be seeking fraudulent driver's licenses, a top state executive suggested in a memo nearly two years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Read the latest headlines about illegal immigration. In fact, Wayne Hurder, who supervises the state's driver-license section for the state Division of Motor Vehicles in Raleigh, sent an e-mail message in August 2003 criticizing some of his DMV officials for being too aggressive with immigrants who presented identification and other documents that examiners thought suspicious. "As I stated for the last nine years, the fact that a person is in the United States without the permission of the Department of Homeland Security (formerly INS) is irrelevant as far as North Carolina DMV is concerned," Hurder said in the message to six other DMV officials, including several regional chief examiners. "If local law enforcement wants to make an issue of their legal status, that obviously is their right and responsibility depending on the statutes under which they operate," Hurder said. "But let me make it clear -- for the umpteenth time -- North Carolina General Statutes, Chapter 20 does not involve itself with a person's legal status in determining their eligibility to apply for a license." North Carolina DMV Commissioner George Tatum, Hurder's boss, disavowed Hurder's memo in a Tuesday interview, saying that it doesn't represent the division's current outlook on identity fraud by unlawful immigrants. "It is not representative of my vision or a statement I would make for what we should do here," Tatum said. He added that the division's Operation Stop Fraud initiative, unveiled early last year, specifically targets all sorts of identity fraud using approaches recommended by Homeland Security and the FBI. But North Carolina has a wide-ranging reputation as a mecca for illegal immigrants from throughout the eastern third of the country seeking fraudulent licenses, particularly Latinos. The state's poor reputation was the subject of a report broadcast nationally last week on CNN. The broadcast focused on the efforts of Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson to stem the flow of licenses to illegal immigrants at the DMV office in Graham. As cameras whirred, an illegal alien from Mexico tried unsuccessfully to get a fraudulent license. Other warning signs abound. Last fall, an examiner at Greensboro's East Market Street DMV office was indicted on felony fraud charges for "falsely issuing" 20 licenses in late 2003 and early last year. Recent arrests in Moore, Montgomery and Yadkin counties broke up rings of people allegedly involved in various aspects of the fraudulent license trade. Motor vehicle chief Tatum says the state's reputation as a soft touch for illegal immigrants is no longer accurate. "We're going to work with all levels of law enforcement to ensure the citizens of North Carolina that their identities are protected from theft and other fraud," he said. Tatum pointed out that the state is deploying some of the nation's most advanced techniques to detect false documents and other licensing fraud. Efforts to reach Hurder, who supervises the state's driver licensing offices, were unsuccessful. In his memo, Hurder cautioned the other DMV officials that he was concerned "that you continue to make these references to a person's immigration status," because "if a person from the outside, such as a lawyer or a reporter, were to review the documents you sent us ... they might jump to the conclusion that DMV is targeting people due to their illegal status." His memo, and the fact that Tatum disavows its currency, suggest the great changes that have swept across the driver-licensing profession since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, particularly in the past year or so. Since the attacks, many states have put explicit statements in their laws or licensing procedures that a driver's license applicant must be "legally present" in this country to qualify. North Carolina is one of 10 states that does not, according to the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators. Critics say that North Carolina still has a long way to go before its licensing procedures are up to par. "Nobody told the legislature that DMV was issuing licenses to people with absolutely no proof of their legal presence (in this country)," said former state Sen. Fern Shubert of Marshville, who made the issue a centerpiece of her unsuccessful campaign for governor last year. Asked for his response to the memo, Gov. Mike Easley said through a spokeswoman that his office instructed DMV to put Operation Stop Fraud into effect last year and continues "to raise the level of security for driver licenses in North Carolina." Johnson's department has been particularly vigilant in trying to root out licensing fraud in Alamance County, arresting more than 125 people in the past year, many of them illegal immigrants. Randy Jones, a spokesman for the Alamance sheriff, said he finds the tone of Hurder's memo unsettling. "The tone that I perceive from that memo is that DMV personnel are supposed to ignore criminal activity," Jones said. Jones said that apart from the national security issues, DMV's past failures in licensing scrutiny bedevil police as they try to identify or locate immigrants in the daily grind of police work. Tatum said that if Hurder's memo had a tone that was not friendly to law enforcement, it is wrong: DMV wants to work with police and sheriffs to improve licensing procedures. Tatum declined to answer questions about the incident at the Greensboro DMV last year, except to say the arrest of examiner Samantha Ann McCain showed that the agency is vigilant in seeking out and prosecuting wrongdoing. Court records show that McCain was indicted Oct. 18 for "unlawfully, willfully and feloniously" issuing the wrongful licenses between Aug. 14, 2003, and Jan. 16, 2004, of last year. Efforts to reach McCain, a Reidsville resident, were unsuccessful. Her attorney, Joseph E. Bruner of High Point, declined comment. Assistant District Attorney David Long, who is prosecuting the case, also declined comment.
NC Driver's License Rules In Need of Overhaul. NC Driver's License Rules Under Fire. NC A Destination for fake ID seekers. I've read enough. I'm ready to join the fight against illegal immigration. Read Original Article. Read ALIPAC's Mission Statement. Join the debate at Free Republic.
