Billboard shows terrorist with driver's license

A controversial billboard showing an Arab terrorist holding a grenade and a driver's license is set to go up soon in both New Mexico and North Carolina, two states where it is comparatively easy for immigrants to secure ID.

The billboard is sponsored by New York-based Coalition for a Secure Driver's License, which says the campaign "is aimed at state governments who have failed to implement driver's license reforms that would strengthen our nation against terrorism."

North Carolina billboard

The organization is opposed to a 2003 New Mexico law that allows illegal aliens to get driver's licenses – a law that makes it easier for terrorists to get legitimate ID, the group contends.

"The fact is it's very easy to walk in to a motor-vehicle office in New Mexico and obtain a driver's license. You don't have to prove a legal presence here," Amanda Bowman, president of the coalition, told the Santa Fe New Mexican.

According to the paper, the organization is spending $50,000 to have the billboard displayed in both states, as well as future radio and television ads.

A spokesman for New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson defended the 2003 law, saying the state is now safer because more drivers have car insurance. Since the law's enactment, 26,780 immigrants have obtained licenses in New Mexico.

New Mexico is one of 11 states that do not require residents to prove their legal presence in the United States to obtain a driver's license, the paper reported.

Some residents of the state are unhappy with the proposed billboards.

"I am a little bit disturbed by the content (of the billboard) and the stereotypes that people of Middle Eastern origin are subjected to," Abdel Aziz, a Moroccan-born scientist who lives in Santa Fe, told the paper. "This does not help the security goals of our country. We need to be holding hands together to be fighting both terrorism and bigotry. This just polarizes our nation."

Lydia Pendley of the Interfaith Alliance of Northern Mexico said she was "tremendously disturbed by this organization using this image connecting Arab men (and immigrants) with violence and then the idea that giving immigrants driver's licenses will promote terrorism in our country."

Bowman told the New Mexican the image on the billboard was copied from a Hamas website and that people criticizing it are "unintentionally defending terrorist images."

Previous story:

Citizenship check for licenses OK'd

Special offer:

It's not too late to get Christmas gifts delivered! Call ShopNetDaily now