(Denver, Colorado) Recently, the state of Colorado passed new anti-illegal immigration laws with strict identification checks to prevent illegal foreign nationals from accessing freebie public services. The initial impact of the new law is most noticeable at the Department of Motor Vehicles.

From Rocky Mountain News:

As residents come into DMV offices to get state ID cards or driver's licenses, they're asked to present birth certificates and immigration papers such as passports and "green cards" to prove they are in the United States legally.

Those documents are then run through the federal SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification of Entitlements) system to verify the applicant's legal immigration status.

In the past month, about 2,100 applicants at DMV were told their documents needed further investigation. Of those, 177 met with investigators and were cleared as legal residents of Colorado. But more than 1,700 cases are pending.

According to Michael Cooke, executive director of the Colorado Department of Revenue, those 1,700 will not be seen again because their documents are phony.

Readers are encouraged to do their own calculations, however, my understanding of basic arithmetic indicates that about 90 percent of the people showing up for driver's licenses are carrying fraudulent or questionable identification. The scope of the problem of counterfeits and forgeries from illegal aliens seems to have blown way past being manageable.

Nobody should be surprised. And, nobody should take as automatically authentic any document presented as identification, in particular, when the document is presented by a person who speaks little or no English.

It's worthwhile to mention that the DMV is only the tip of the iceberg. Imagine what will be found when some controls are placed on social security cards, professional certificates and licenses, military records, pilot's licenses, college degrees, high school diplomas, employment histories, and who knows what else.

Companion post at Interested-Participant.