California Senate Passes Bill to Give Professional Licenses to Illegal Aliens- Blame Anchor Baby Senator Ricardo Lara

California Senate Passes Bill to Give Professional Licenses to Illegal Aliens

 Remember just a few years ago when Everyone was talking about the North American Union - something that was shocking back in 2006, when we still thought this the US was a country of laws and it was all a horrible mistake about the illegal aliens and all we had to do was to report them and it would be taken care of? Well, as California goes, so goes the Nation and there is no outrage that I can see-It makes more sense now to get a fake degree in a foreign country and then return to the US .

On Thursday, May 8, the California Senate passed Senate Bill ("S.B.") 1159, which allows the State of California to give business and professional licenses to illegal aliens.

 The bill accomplishes this by allowing over 40 state boards to accept an applicant's individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN) in lieu of a social security number for proof of identity. (Los Angeles Times, May 11, 2014) If passed, the bill makes illegal aliens eligible to practice in over two hundred different fields, including medicine, pharmacy, psychiatry, security and real estate, despite federal law's prohibition on the employment of unauthorized aliens. (S.B. 1159; 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a))S.B. 1159 was introduced by  Anchor Baby Senator Ricardo Lara, whose parents were illegal aliens, only a few months after the California Legislature approved a bill allowing illegal aliens to obtain law licenses. (Los Angeles Times, May 11, 2014)

Lara explained the bill as an extension of other measures enacted by California in recent years to provide illegal aliens with tools to assimilate in the United States, including driver's licenses, in-state tuition and access to state financial aid and private funds held by the state universities. (Los Angeles Daily News, May 12, 2014) Senator Lara claims that S.B. 1159 will ensure "more Californians have an effective means of economic mobility and self-sufficiency." (Los Angeles Times, May 11, 2014) Senator Lara, however, did not comment on how S.B. 1159 will impact the prospects of California's unemployed citizen and legal residents seeking jobs in the professions affected.

Others view S.B. 1159 as yet another impediment to the enforcement of federal immigration law by the State of California. Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform ("FAIR") commented, "California is doing everything in its power to blur any distinction between those who are legally present and those who are not." (Id.) S.B. 1159 flies in the face of federal law, which prohibits employers from hiring unauthorized workers. (8 U.S.C. § 1324(a))

Republicans also expressed concern over the cost of implementing S.B. 1159. Peter DeMarco, spokesman for the Senate Republican caucus, warned that tax authorities would "not always be able to correctly identify licensees to ensure proper collection of taxes associated with the licensee's practice of profession."(Id.) Illegal immigration already costs California an estimated $21.8 billion a year. (FAIR Cost Study, 2010)

The Assembly will now consider S.B. 1159. If passed by the Assembly, Governor Jerry Brown must sign the bill before it can become law. S.B. 1159 is just one of a handful of pro-illegal immigration bills introduced in California this year. The California Legislature is also considering providing taxpayer subsidized health care, insurance coverage and student loans to illegal aliens living in the state. (See FAIR's Legislative Update, Apr. 30, 2014; see also FAIR's Legislative Update, Apr. 16, 2014