Saying it is a necessity for a person in the United States illegally to drive does not ring true. Whatever their personal financial situation, the person broke the law by coming to this country without proper paperwork and authorization and are further breaking laws by driving without a drivers license.
AAA and other studies have shown that unlicensed drivers are involved in far more collisions resulting in serious injury or death. What about the impact unlicensed drivers have upon the honest motoring public (not even considering the financial loss due to the fact that unlicensed drivers are uninsured the vast majority of the time)?
Having a checkpoint in an area populated by many unlicensed drivers makes complete sense. If the police were going to conduct a gang or rape, auto theft, etc. task force they would be conducted in areas that have shown to be a magnet for such crimes. Valuable police time and resources would not be wasted in areas where a particular type of crime or violation is not occuring.

@ Robert, where are you from? I don’t know if I should laugh or cry at your comment. I sugegst you travel more and see different communitites in our country before making simplistic comments that offer no solutions. The truth is our economy wouldn’t be half what it is today if not for immigrant labor. Oh, and another suggestion: perhaps spend some time researching your family background and you might figure out (gasp) YOUR FAMILY WERE IMMIGRANTS TOO AT SOME POINT, and (double gasp) they did not bring their invitation when they arrived here. Unless you are a pure blooded native american, then you might have a case worth arguing. In any case, I appreciate my fruits and vegetables, buildings, culture, food, and all the other countless gifts of immigrant labor and identity. If the peoblem was as simple as you frame it, policymakers would have solved it already. Well, gotta go renew my license now, don’t wanna pay a late fee

@ Sabina

you wrote:

“The truth is our economy wouldn’t be half what it is today if not for immigrant labor.”

There have been studies that have shown that “illegal immigration” has a neutral impact upon the U.S. economy. See the copy and pasted article here: (it’s no longer available on the arizona daily star)

http://www.latinalista.net/palabrafinal/2010/02/senate_resignations_underscore_need_to_a.html

However, other studies show that, if legalized, there would be a positive impact upon the economy.

As to the checkpoints targeting immigrants who drive without a license. Oh well, sucks, but after all, they are driving without a license and thus are liable for the fines.

@Bryan, youre missing my point. Immigrant labor built this country. whether we’re talking about germans, the irish, eastern europeans, chinese, filipinos, mexicans, west and south africans, south asians, puerto ricans, dominicans, greeks, etc. And yes, you can find a study that validates anything, it depends on who puts the money up and how that study is conducted. But go out and talk to people around the country and you will see that the vast majority of us can be traced back to immigrants. All of whom probably worked their ass off to succeed. Where would agriculture, building trades, meat processing, to name a few, be without Mexican and central American labor? And where would healthcare (one of few growing industries be without the Latino workforce, whose parents or grandparents were immigrants? In other words, you would have to be blind not to see what immigrants do for our economy. Like I said before, if it really was in our national interest to get rid of immigrants and their labor, congress would have done it already. But you’d be surprised how effective the business lobby is in not letting that happen. They disagree with you because your argument would leave them bankrupt.
In a country where Latinos are becoming the largest majority, you may want to rethink the immigrants are dirty criminals line, if only to save you from teh eventual ass kicking.

[...] ugandanews had some interesting insight onHere’s a quick over viewAn investigation by the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley with California Watch has found that impounds at checkpoints in 2009 generated an estimated $40 million in towing fees and police fines, revenue that cities divide … [...]

They are trying. ICE is terrorizong a lot of people, and they get to be on the news acting like they’re solving something. But I really think we’re all smart enough to see that waste of time for what it is