Something is missing in the quest by immigrant groups to make Pennsylvania the 13th state to allow undocumented immigrants to get driver's licenses: a compelling rationale.

Before we elaborate, it's important to state a couple of premises: No one should be denied vital health care due to immigration status; no child should be made to suffer due to his/her parents' status; no child should be denied an education. Doing so would be inhumane and immoral.But we just can't get our minds around the rationales put forward again last week for conferring drivers licenses on the state's estimated 200,000 undocumented residents. Immigrant groups and lawmakers held a joint press conference praising the introduction of House Bill 1450, which would do that.The bill's sponsor, Rep. Mark Cohen, D-Philadelphia, noted: "This is another step forward to bring undocumented people onto a path to citizenship ..."But it's hard to see how waiving an inconvenient rule gets people on a path to follow further rules. Where is the encouragement to work within the system and meet its legal requirements?An important argument of advocates is that not having a driver's license, which serves as a valid ID, makes it difficult for undocumented people to get jobs, services and also drive to work.Nonetheless it seems that plenty of folks are managing that, with the help of employers who don't look too hard at their paperwork, and with carpooling.Besides creating a lower ID standard than "law-abiding" citizens have to meet, wouldn't providing driver's licenses to the undocumented encourage more employers to skirt hiring laws, and perpetuate the system profiting on and exploiting immigrant labor and competing unfairly with businesses that follow the rules a system that everyone agrees is untenable? Do we want to assist unscrupulous businesses and encourage the trafficking and hiring of yet more undocumented immigrants?At the Harrisburg press conference local resident Esvin Maldonado was quoted as making another point: "I live in Franklin County where there is no public transportation, and my work day starts at 2 a.m. I need a driver's license for basic things, like working, going grocery shopping and identifying myself."Probably there are tradeoffs for lack of public transportation that make the county attractive to immigrants, including Maldonado, or they would go elsewhere.But undocumented people are in fact getting along here without driver's licenses, though it would be easier for them if they didn't have to.Is making it easier to live as an undocumented immigrant a sensible goal? What actually needs improving is our immigration system, with its rigid bureaucracy and multitude of outdated and harsh rules twisted by politics, which makes it difficult for many to come here legally. Providing driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants is a poor patch on a failing system.We should be able to have a rational discussion about that, with open minds and without politics, prejudice, invective or sense of entitlement.But we haven't had one yet.The (Chambersburg)Public Opinion