Legal Driving for Illegal Residents
The problem of illegal immigrants in the United States speaks for itself. Thousands of foreigners are smuggled into the country every year. And while these people do not have any valid Visas or identification cards, American driver’s license system makes it possible for them to possess valid driver’s licenses. In other words, the current situation in the United States is the following, no matter whether you are staying in the country legally or not, you can easily have valid driver’s license. Therefore, Current American driver’s license system needs immediate change; application procedures should be stricter and demand each applicant to provide a valid proof that the applicant is legally in the United States.
On September 11th 2001, three hijackers were caught during their criminal intentions in turmoil of the attack. As police officers later found out, those criminals were foreigners. Their Visas have already expired long before that, however all three criminals had valid driver’s licenses on them. This fact testifies that the United States registries grant driver’s licenses too easily, without sufficient control. There are no strict rules regarding what the applicant should provide in order to get driver’s license. Immoral foreigners have been and are still utilizing this opportunity, of which the case with three hijackers testifies. Therefore, the immediate change is absolutely necessary as soon as possible.
There are two possible positive consequences of this change: a) all drivers will be really eligible for driving cars and public transporting vehicles, and b) many of illegal residents of the country will be revealed. Tracing illegal dwellers at borderlines is somewhat difficult, so the United States Congress has come up with an idea to identify those people when they are already inside the country. There is a proposal in the United States Congress to release a law that would require everyone to apply for driver’s license in order to provide proof of legal residency.
On one hand, the change of the entire driver’s license system would ensure that all drivers are legal residents of the country. It would also check whether foreigners applying for driver’s license have valid Visas or are already residents of the United States. Therefore, all drivers on American roads would be real, valid, tested drivers. However, it is obvious that no matter whether the change takes place or not, there still will be a certain percent of people who drive without license, hoping not to get caught. 
On the other hand, the change in the system would awaken and shake the “underworld” of the country. If the driver’s licensing system becomes too strict, certain niche would lose their money and social status. This niche is, of course, the illegal immigrants and criminals. The change eventually will entail mass production of fake documents and ID cards. Either “they” will produce fake driver’s licenses to avoid the structured application process, or fake proofs of legal residency. Fake ID crimes and identity theft rates will climb.
Identity theft has been and continues to be one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States. In 2003 only there have been reported approximately ten million civilians who suffered from identity theft or fraud. Not only the victims of these crimes suffer financially and morally, but also their reputation and social status may be secretly defiled by criminals’ actions. Another factor that distinguishes identity theft from other crimes is that victims may not even know about the crime until after several months. 
The key factors that differentiate identity crimes from other crimes are that identity is intangible. The criminal does not actually “steel” anything physically, rather he copies valuable personal information such as Social Security number, credit cards number, telephone calling card number, names and even home phone numbers. Once the criminal obtains the data, he can take over the victim’s identity and conduct a great variety of criminal acts. Such acts range from simple loans, fraudulent purchases via credit cards, cash withdrawals from credit cards, to many others including producing false ID cards such as driver’s license.
The facts that identity theft and false ID crime existed in 2003 only testify that if current diver’s license system changes, there will be a tremendous boom in false ID industry, and more than ten million people might suffer. In order to prevent this possibility, President Bush signed identity theft penalty law, claiming that, “the losses are not measured only in dollars, an identity thief can steal the victim's financial reputation. Running up bills on credit card accounts that the victim never knew existed, the criminal can quickly damage a person's lifelong efforts to build and maintain a good credit rating. Repairing the damage can take months or years.” Thus, the law reassures the possible outcome of the licensing change.
The two positive effects of the driver’s license system change would outweigh the possible negative ones. First, many, if not majority, of illegal residents would be revealed. And second, all drivers will be tested thoroughly for driving skills. Yes, the boom in fake ID production may arise, and will serve as the price for the change. However, drivers of buses and trucks (road trains) must have a valid licenses, otherwise they endanger commodity or, what is much worse, people’s lives. The fake ID cards can be recognized, but people’s lives cannot be brought back...
Bibliography
1.	Driver’s License Integrity. Appendix A. From Integrity Systems Group at http://www.idsysgroup.com/USDL-Plans.htm
2.	Cedillo, S.O. California Legislators Try to Sneak by “Urgent” Driver’s License Bill for Illegal Aliens. From Free Republic at http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1077626/posts
3.	Montaldo, Charles. Excerpt from New Law Stiffens Penalties for Identity Theft. From About,  at http://crime.about.com/od/issues/a/aa040718.htm
4.	Identity Theft and Fraud. From United States Department of Justice at http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fraud/idtheft.html #What%20Are%20Identity%20Theft%20and%20Identity