Three weeks ago, seven men were charged with gang raping a woman in Huntersville. Most people probably don’t associate Governor Mike Easley and the Division of Motor Vehicles with the crime, but there is a connection.
All seven men charged in the rape have two critical things in common. All are illegal aliens. And all seven have driver’s licenses issued by the state of North Carolina, Huntersville Police Detective A. Dempski confirmed for Creative Loafing last week.
Perhaps these men would have come here anyway and committed this crime if they couldn’t get a license so effortlessly from the DMV. But the DMV sure is making it easy for them — easy for them to drive, easy for them to earn a living, easy for them to break immigration law.
When Easley looked into the camera two weeks ago during the gubernatorial debate and insisted that you need a Social Security number to get a driver’s license in this state, he flat-out lied.
There have been a lot of whoppers told this election season, but this was probably the biggest. It’s the same one Easley’s administration has been telling for over a year now even though he knows better.
The truth is that you need a Social Security number to get a license in this state if you have one. If you don’t because you’re here illegally, well, that’s no problem. You can just use something called an individual tax identification number (ITIN) instead.
An ITIN is a tax processing number the IRS gave out, in the words of Congressman Tom Tancredo, “like candy” to people who work here but aren’t eligible to get a Social Security number. The IRS has issued six million since 1996. Only two million have ever been used to file tax forms. The status of the rest is unknown. Last year, federal agents testified that they’re pretty easy to buy on the black market.
ITIN cards provide no proof that those who possess them are here legally, much less that they actually are who they claim to be. The situation so concerned IRS officials from a terrorism perspective that they sent a letter last fall to the nation’s governors, including Easley, asking them to stop accepting ITINs. The Easley administration ignored them. At the time, the Washington Times reported, North Carolina was one of six states still accepting ITINs. What has confused most people on this issue is that the DMV stopped accepting other questionable forms of ID earlier this year. But it never stopped taking the ITINs.
The problem here is that those licenses the state’s been issuing on Easley’s watch aren’t just used by illegal alien rapists who need to get around town. They’re also used by passengers as identification when they board planes.
A statement you have to hunt for on the DMV’s site reads, “If you do not have a valid Social Security Number and if you are ineligible to obtain one, you may present an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN).”
In front of me right now is a copy of the official “Requirements for Identification” used by the DMV since February 2. It mandates that the DMV accept ITINs in lieu of Social Security numbers.
Still don’t believe me? Pick a random DMV, call them up, tell them you don’t have a Social Security number and ask if you can use an ITIN to get a license.
I called seven DMVs across the state this week without identifying myself as a reporter and asked that question. At all seven I was told I could get a license if I had an ITIN. I have every one of those conversations on tape.
And if you can’t prove that you live here? No problem. All you’ve got to do is sign an affidavit claiming you do. It costs $2.
Easley’s record on this is a long one. Back in 1997, when he was the state’s attorney general, his office creatively interpreted a state law barring the DMV from issuing a license to someone who fails to provide a Social Security number. The law, they said, applies only to people who actually have Social Security numbers. Everyone else could use alternate forms of identification.
Thanks to Easley, between 1997 and 2001 the state issued 400,000 licenses to people who didn’t have Social Security numbers. Weeks after Sept. 11, Wake County legislator Russell Capps pushed legislation to revoke those licenses unless the holders proved they are state residents. But the Easley administration didn’t want to play ball.
“If overnight you take all those licenses, it certainly paralyzes some folks’ businesses that depend on those workers,” H. Nolo Martinez, director of Hispanic/Latino affairs for Gov. Mike Easley, told the Associated Press in 2001.
Then Easley went a step further. Less than a month after the Sept. 11 attacks, he signed legislation reaffirming the right of applicants to use ITINs, Mexican matricula cards and a bunch of other unverifiable junk to get a driver’s license. Now he wants you to believe that none of it happened. Try telling that to the Huntersville rape victim. I’m sure she’ll understand.
Contact Tara Servatius at tara.servatius@cln.com
This article appears in Oct 27 – Nov 1, 2004.
