It didn’t take long for open-borders advocates to target the tougher new policy on legal presence adopted recently by the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles. Less than two months after an illegal immigrant struck a car carrying a group of elderly nuns in Prince William County, protesters picketed DMV offices in Arlington and Richmond to pressure Virginia officials to back down. They should not. On Aug. 1, Carlos Martinelly-Montano’s Subaru hit a guardrail, then slammed into the nuns’ Toyota. Sister Denise Mosier was killed instantly and two others were critically injured and remain hospitalized. The 23-year-old Bolivian has since been indicted on drunk driving and involuntary manslaughter charges.
As Prince William Police Chief Charles Deane pointed out to Department of Homeland Security officials, this was Martinelly-Montano’s third DUI in three years. He was being deported when DHS inexplicably gave him an Employment Authorization Document (I-766), which he used to obtain a legal Virginia ID. Deane asked DHS to close “this glaring gap,” which “can result in criminal aliens being inappropriately released. …” DMV also announced it would no longer accept the work permit as proof of legal presence. Characterizing this as an “overreaction,” the American Civil Liberties Union, CASA de Maryland, the National Council of La Raza and other groups in the Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations sent a letter urging DMV to rescind the new policy immediately, and accusing agency officials of “re-victimizing” refugees and asylum seekers who supposedly can’t produce any of the other 20 documents DMV continues to accept.
