Bruce Schneier tells us why he thinks we should go ahead and give drivers licenses to illegal aliens:

The state driver’s license databases are the only comprehensive databases of U.S. residents. They’re more complete, and contain more information – including photographs and, in some cases, fingerprints – than the IRS database, the Social Security database, or state birth certificate databases. As such, they are an invaluable police tool – for investigating crimes, tracking down suspects, and proving guilt.

Removing the 8 million-15 million illegal immigrants from these databases would only make law enforcement harder. Of course, the unlicensed won’t pack up and leave. They will drive without licenses, increasing insurance premiums for everyone. They will use fake IDs, buy real IDs from crooked DMV employees – as several of the 9/11 terrorists did – forge "breeder documents" to get real IDs (another 9/11 terrorist trick), or resort to identity theft. These millions of people will continue to live and work in this country, invisible to any government database and therefore the police.

As usual, Schneier makes some good arguments. Of course, I don’t subscribe to that particular point of view, as I’m more of a believer in the Broken Window approach to law enforcement:

Consider a building with a few broken windows. If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it’s unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside.

Or consider a sidewalk. Some litter accumulates. Soon, more litter accumulates. Eventually, people even start leaving bags of trash from take-out restaurants there or breaking into cars.

Tolerating illegals is bad enough. Given them official papers is, well, intolerable.

The latest effort to impose a restraining order to stop Arizona’s new anti-illegal immigration law from taking effect has failed, as U.S. District Judge Neil Wake denied the petitioner’s request.

Under the law, employers that knowingly hire unauthorized workers can face suspensions of their business licenses for up to 10 days. Repeat violators would have their licenses revoked.

Even though the law won’t go into effect until 1 January, the force of the sanction law is already being felt:

Illegal immigrants in Arizona, frustrated with a flagging economy and tough new legislation cracking down on their employers, are returning to their home countries or trying their luck in other states. . . .

"People are calling me telling me about their friend, their cousin, their neighbors — they’re moving back to Mexico," said Magdalena Schwartz, an immigrant-rights activist and pastor at a Mesa church. "They don’t want to live in fear, in terror."

Martin Herrera, a 40-year-old illegal immigrant and masonry worker who lives in Camp Verde, 70 miles north of Phoenix, said he is planning to return to Mexico as soon as he ties up loose ends after living here for four years.

"I don’t want to live here because of the new law and the oppressive environment," he said. "I’ll be better in my country."

Perhaps Arizona will serve as an example to other states — or the federal government. Perhaps I’m dreaming.

The good news is that ICE was twice as effective in 2007 than in the previous year:

Federal agents who track down fugitive illegal immigrants arrested more than 30,000 people nationally in fiscal year 2007, nearly double the previous year, officials said Tuesday. . . .

There were more than 30,408 arrests nationally in fiscal 2007, which ended Sept. 30, compared to 15,462 last year, ICE said.

The bad news is that at least half of the 10.3 million immigrants who have arrived since 2000 are illegal (about 5.6 million). That’s an average of 800,000 illegals per year.

Thus ICE is capturing less than 4 percent of the criminals coming into our country each year.

A "Mexican-American" in Reno, Nevada decided to honor the Hispanic community by flying a Mexican flag over his store. The problem is that he put it above the American flag.

How flying a Mexican flag honors Hispanics is beyond me. I don’t fly a British flag along side my Stars and Stripes to celebrate my heritage. I don’t go down the street and see French flags, German flags, Ukrainian flags and so on.

No, the man was honoring Mexican nationalism. Viva la raza.

The store owner professes to be an American citizen (although he has a stunning ignorance about the law regarding one of our most cherished symbols).

You can watch video footage of an outraged veteran taking matters (and an Army knife) into his own hands and fixing the situation. Good for him. God knows our chicken-shit politicians would be too cowardly to call on police to enforce the law.

Happy 4th. Enjoy and be safe.

MSNBC presents 20 of the “more difficult” questions that immigrants must answer on a civics test in order to become naturalized citizens. The only one that I missed concerned the name of an INS form (not something a citizen should need to know), though I will admit to taking an educated guess on number 8.

You answered 95% of questions correctly. Here’s your rating:

0-20%: Maybe you’re still thinking too much about the Old Country.
25-40%: Mmmm. Do you really want to be a citizen? This kind of performance isn’t going to impress those nice immigration folks.
45-60%: Not too bad, but you really need to break out the civics books again — word is, the INS is looking for an 80 percent score.
65-80%: Hey, you may make a good citizen yet! Look at your wrong answers and a little revision should do the trick.
85-100%: Welcome to the United States! (And, truth be told, you know more about this great land than most Americans.)

I believe that last one. Looking over this particular set of questions, I doubt that most Americans could pass. I know I couldn’t have before my great political awakening in 2000 as Gore tried to litigate his way to the White House.

House Republicans met after hours today and passed a resolution that is eloquent in its simplicity:

Resolved the House GOP Conference disapproves of the Senate immigration bill.

The resolution passed the House Republican Conference by a large margin, 114 to 23.

Better yet:

[Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.)] said the amnesty provision, no matter how strict the language, was a deal-breaker for most House Republicans.

“That’s why the fundamental bill has no credibility, and basically what we are saying today is it is dead on arrival in the House, we can’t have secret deals, this has to go through committee, it has to go in pieces,” echoed Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.). “A comprehensive bill will not pass the House.”

“The Z visa is unenforceable,” Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif) said, referring to a provision of the Senate bill that would put those in the country illegally on the path to citizenship.

At least some Republicans haven’t forgotten their conservative base.

RedState says that House Republicans will be meeting tonight at 5:30 EST to consider a resolution “disappov[ing] of the Senate Immigration Bill.” RedState urges:

Call your Representative today and ask him or her to support this Conference resolution. Doing so will send a clear message to the Senate that the majority of the House Republicans oppose this ill-crafted bill – one which was negotiated without a public hearing process and one which expresses contempt for the rule of law.

The roll call is up, so you can identify every potential RINO. Thankfully, I get to write my two senators to thank them for voting against reviving this very bad legislation.

The best commentary that I’ve seen on the immigration battle is by Stanley Kurtz [ht Say Anything and Junk Yard Blog]:

Something about this immigration battle doesn’t sit well. For all the bitterness of our political battles, there’s at least the sense that the government responds to the drift of public opinion. The Republicans in Congress turned into big spenders and the war in Iraq went poorly. As a result the Democrats prospered in 2006, if narrowly. That’s how democracy works. Our politics are often angry and ugly (and that’s a problem), but this is because the public is deeply divided on issues of great importance. Deep down, we understand that our political problems reflect our own divisions.

Somehow this immigration battle feels different. The bill is wildly unpopular, yet it’s close to passing. The contrast with the high-school textbook version of democracy is not only glaring and maddening, it’s downright embarrassing. Usually, even when we’re at each others’ throats, there’s still an underlying pride in the democratic process. This immigration battle strips us of even that pride.

Wildly unpopular is right. LGF has a poll up to gauge the internet reaction. Vote and then see if you are surprised by the results so far.

Update: RedState lists the sellouts.

Imagine this: there isn’t a Chinese character for “Fred”, much less Thompson.

This is a dilemma currently being debated in Boston because of their large Asian population. So what to do? Officials will have to spell the names phonetically, one character for each syllable of the candidate’s name. But there are problems with this approach:

So Mitt Romney could be read as “Sticky Rice” or “Uncooked Rice.” Fred Thompson might be read as “Virtue Soup.” And Barack Obama could be read as “Oh Bus Horse.”

Galvin’s own name could be read at least two different ways, as “High Prominent Noble Educated” or “Stick Mosquito.”

But perhaps the most perplexing translation would be for Boston Mayor Thomas Menino’s name, which could be read as “Sun Moon Rainbow Farmer” or “Imbecile,” or “Barbarian Mud No Mind of His Own.”

To make matters worse, the ballots must be offered in two Chinese dialects: Mandarin and Cantonese. Why all the fuss?

“We are looking to make sure Asian Americans are able to vote for their candidates of choice,” Glenn Magpantay, staff attorney of the New York-based Asian American Defense Fund, told the Boston Globe.

Here’s a thought. Learn English!

Make rudimentary command of English a requirement of citizenship and this problem (and huge drain on my tax dollar) goes away. As does their ability to function in their new country.

Hey, you want to adopt a new country? Then adopt a new language!