OPINION: Calling “BS” On Newspaper’s Father’s Day Guest Column On Drivers Licenses

Because I am 100% against granting drivers licenses to “undocumented immigrants,” or as I prefer to call them illegal aliens, I read a guest column in the Star Ledger with great interest.

The author of the column, John Jairo, may be a nice guy, I don’t know and frankly, don’t care because I am calling BS on his column.

Jairo opens his column with:

On this Father's Day, I am writing to share my experience living, working, and raising a family without a driver's license. I have three children, two of whom go to Dover public schools, and my eldest daughter goes to the local community college. All three of them have trouble getting to school, urgent appointments, and participating in extracurricular activities because my wife nor I have access to a state-issued driver's license in New Jersey to drive them because of our immigration status.

So, this guy lives in Dover, NJ, a Morris County community. He claims the kids have trouble getting to school. No way! Dover is a whopping 2.73 square miles and has three elementary schools, a middle school and a high school. I’m guessing none of the schools are on the very edge of town and his home on the exact opposite edge of town, which means his kids likely walk only half that distance to school, 1.365 miles. That’s a shorter distance than I walked to school! Later in his column Jairo complains many kids have to walk 30 to 40 minutes to school. Boo, hoo. I did it, so can his kids.

As to his child that goes to the community college. The NJ Transit Route 875 bus goes through Dover and to the Community College of Morris.

No! Jairo’s children do not have trouble getting to school.

In his column, Jairo claims he faced death threats in his native Colombia because of how well he was doing. He claims the death threats forced to leave everything behind because of those death threats. All that may be true, but I would think it would have been much easier to run across the Colombian border to Brazil, Ecuador or Peru. Maybe it’s harder to sneak into those countries?

Granted I am assuming this guy snuck into the United States because he started his column stating that he does not have access to a driver’s license due to his immigration status. To me he is stating he is not in the country legally, therefore he should not have access to a license.

Jairo ends his column:

As New Jerseyans are celebrating and honoring fathers, I hope our state can help make access to a driver's licenses a reality for more parents like myself by allowing every qualified resident who can get tested and trained to access a standard driver's license. It is a necessity for thousands of families like mine.

This guy believes “every qualified resident” should be able to get a driver’s license. What he fails to understand is that part of being qualified is being a legal resident. Maybe he should start by doing things the right way and becoming a legal resident.