Imagine if you did not have your drivers license, your ATM card, your Social Security Card and all the other bits of laminated paper that make life in modern society possible. For most Americans this is only a Kafkaesque nightmare, but for millions of people who immigrated to the United States illegally, it is a day-to-day reality. Fortunately, forward thinking states and cities are stepping up and giving illegal immigrants the opportunity to live “normal” lives.

In July, New Haven, Connecticut began issuing City Identification cards to all residents regardless of immigration status. These cards can be used by the city’s 15,000 illegal immigrants as ID with the police, for opening bank accounts and to gain access to the mundane pleasures of life, such as public libraries and beaches.

The benefits of the New Haven experiment for this community are clear. Prior to the ID card program muggers specifically targeted immigrants because they were known to carry cash since they did not have bank accounts. At the same time, by allowing people to interact with the local police with confidence, regardless of status, the measure should produce a city that is safer for all its inhabitants.

In an arguably more radical move, New York’s Democratic Governor, Eliot Spitzer, has made drivers’ licenses available to everyone who lives in the state. Through an administrative decision, Spitzer and the state DMV have repealed a Pataki-era regulation requiring license applicants to provide a Social Security number. This measure makes New York the largest state to offer licenses to illegal immigrants, since California reversed the liberal license policy of former Governor Gray Davis at the behest of Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In addition to opening up a world of employment opportunities and freedom of movement to the state’s half million illegal immigrants, Spitzer argues that the new policy will benefit the average New Yorker. Spitzer’s office points to a study by AAA, showing that licensed drivers are much safer than unlicensed ones. Spitzer also notes that drivers with licenses will be able to purchase legally mandated car insurance so that in the event of an accident, the injured can be compensated. Finally, the Governor claims that his plan will improve homeland security, since it will document residents who otherwise might be unknown to authorities.

Although critics of these liberalization measures argue that they will encourage greater illegal immigration and cause greater fraud, both these concerns are unfounded. Incorporating illegal immigrants into the broader community will have no serious effect on the flow of immigrants and will actually improve public safety.

Economic hardship in their countries of origin and United States’ relative prosperity are what drive people to immigrate illegally. Per capita income in America is $44,190, while in Mexico it is $8,066 and only $908 in Nicaragua. In the face of such vast disparities, migration, legal or not, is a virtually irresistible force.

Not only is the idea that liberalization will lead to less respect for the law false, but the opposite is in fact true. Right now, many are forced to use fake Social Security numbers, thereby committing a felony, in order to do the simplest of tasks. Finally, having a population completely beyond the reach or protection of the law is one of the worst possible arrangements from a law and order perspective.

In the long run, politicians in Washington D.C. will have to realize that deporting the 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States is not a workable or humane solution to the immigration situation. Doing so would tear families apart and, according to the Center for American Progress, cost upwards of $206 billion.

Until then, local governments, including right here in Lorain County, should take advantage of our federal system and do all they can to let otherwise law-abiding illegal immigrants live and work honestly as productive members of American society.