On Thursday, the North Carolina Department of Transportation announced that they are dropping their plans to issue pink-striped driver's licenses to illegal aliens, and the new licenses will be be indistinguishable from those issued to citizens and legal residents.
Last month, the state agency announced that they would issue licenses to illegal aliens eligible for President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, better known as the 'DREAM Act amnesty order.'
The licenses were designed with a pink stripe to make them easily recognizable to law enforcement, in the case that the license holder is charged with a crime, which would presumably revoke their newly attained protected status.
However, almost as soon as North Carolina announced that the licenses would be issued, illegal aliens and those who advocate on their behalf, began complaining about the design.
The New York Times even dubbed the pink-striped license "a modern day scarlet letter."
The AP reported:
The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina also takes issue with the designation.
“North Carolina should not be making it harder for aspiring citizens to integrate and contribute to our communities by branding them with a second-class driver’s license,” said ACLU attorney Raul Pinto. “There is simply no reason for officials to stigmatize people who are in the U.S. legally with an unnecessary marker that could lead to harassment, confusion, and racial profiling.”
The AP also reported:
Jewish leaders also joined the outcry. Four rabbis had earlier made plans to hand-deliver a letter Friday to Gov. Pat McCrory asking him to scrap the pink-striped design. They said they would still deliver the letter anyway. It was signed by more than 70 Jewish leaders nationwide.
"Our efforts do not end when major discrimination turns into minor discrimination; it ends when we are 100 percent positive that discriminatory policies will not go into effect in our state," said Rabbi Eric Solomon of Raleigh's Beth Meyer Synagogue.
Several Democrats even introduced legislation into the North Carolina General Assembly to ban the pink stripes.
State Representative Paul Luebke (D-Durham) told The Times:
It is offensive to me that the governor would put a stigma upon young people who are legal.
Why should someone who has gone through the process and gotten their papers have to go through hoops to explain to a potential employer exactly who they are because they have a driver’s license with a pink stripe on it?
Late Thursday afternoon, state Transportation Department spokesman Mike Charbonneau claimed that the decision to drop the pink-striped design was made to merely to simplify the printing process.
The state will begin giving out licenses to illegal aliens on Monday.
Of course, this decision was made over the very loud objections of many North Carolinians. However, as is so often the case, the desire for cheap labor and commerce has trumped the rule of law and the safety of the citizens.
Learn more as to why the actual citizens of North Carolina object to issuing licenses to illegal aliens:
Illegal alien arrested after deadly crash in Charlotte
No ICE holds for illegal aliens charged with traffic violations
With so many illegal aliens, Afghanistan may be safer than North Carolina
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