US News

Californians flee so Brown offers perks for illegals

The Golden State is quickly losing its lustre as million of Californians flee the high unemployment, high tax and high congestion for better opportunities elsewhere.

As the Manhattan Institute details in its new report there are a lot of reasons why since 1990 3.4 million Californians have left for greener pastures.

“States with low unemployment rates, such as Texas, are drawing people from California, whose rate is above the national average. Taxation also appears to be a factor, especially as it contributes to the business climate and, in turn, jobs. Most of the destination states favored by Californians have lower taxes. States that have gained the most at California’s expense are rated as having better business climates. The data suggest that many cost drivers—taxes, regulations, the high price of housing and commercial real estate, costly electricity, union power, and high labor costs—are prompting businesses to locate outside California, thus helping to drive the exodus.”

But Gov. Jerry Brown has a solution to this out migration that is hurting his state’s economy, its providing perks for those who stay: legal driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants.  

Brown approves of legislation that will offer drivers licenses to young illegal immigrants who are granted deferred action through President Obama’s new immigration gambit.

Brown is using the same logic as President Obama in this case, by arguing that those who came to the US through no fault of their own shouldn’t be penalized with illegal status forever and consequently they shouldn’t be denied the possibility of legally and safely getting to work or school now that the federal government has said they can stay here legally temporarily.

Are the licenses due to expire when the individual’s legal work permit does?

Unlikely given that there is no coordination between federal government programs let alone programs run from Washington and Sacremento.

Good luck to Brown and Company fixing their troubled eonomy enough to keep the people they already have and revitalizing what was once the land of opportunity for millions of Americans.

But granting legal licenses to illegal immigrants whose status has been changed temporarily for the purposes of a presidential election, isn’t necessarily the way to put your best foot forward.