Illegal Alien Sues Over ID Laws

Fernando Castillo Solis, Arrested in 2010. Photo from BustedMugShots.com

In Gwinnett County Georgia, an illegal immigrant is suing the state over their drivers' license laws and policies.

Under the law, those seeking a license must provide proof that they have had an established a legal residence in Georgia within the past 30 days prior to the application for the license. The law also allows for those driving without a license to be prosecuted, even if they obtain a legal drivers' license prior to the court date.

Fernando Castillo-Solis is a Mexican citizen, legally, who is in Georgia illegally, without a visa and without a "green card". Legally, he does not reside in Georgia. He is in the state (and the country) illegally.

The law also forbids personnel who are in the country illegally from obtaining a drivers; license.

His case is that the law, a 287(g) program, allows for racial profiling and is unconstitutional.

Other state laws also enable any illegal immigrant caught driving illegally (without a license) is also subject for turn-over to ICE for prosecution and/or deportation. 287(g) is a program under the auspices of The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (HR2202). Gwinnett County, GA is a certified 287(g) partnership county under the federal law, which allows limited partnership and an amount of delegated enforcement authority from the federal government and ICE to the certified local law enforcement officials.

There are problems with Castillo-Solis's law suit. First of all, he is not a US citizen. Any legal rights he may be granted are subject to treaties with his country of citizenship, Mexico. In effect, those protections are really under the good graces of our country.

The second problem is that filing the suit, he is, in essence, pleading guilty to a crime. He should be so convicted and sentenced. In addition, should he fail his suit, the sentence for his driving an unregistered vehicle without a license stands. That will make him guilty of two other crimes.

Logical extrapolation indicates a third problem. This type of case brings into light the issues with Voter ID. Simply stated, if he wins his case, there will be no electoral protections with any Voter ID law. Why? Simply put, illegal immigrants will have legal IDs. There will be little stopping them from committing voter fraud with those legal IDs. They already commit voter fraud with stolen IDs. Basically, our national elections will fall under the direct influence of foreign nationals who should have no say in our sovereign elections.

All of the above seem to be a set-up for a future challenge of Arizona's SB-1070 and other states with similar anti-illegal immigration policies, as well as the IRIRA of 1996's 287(g) programs if not the entire federal law itself.