Also in 2007, news stories called attention to the state’s lax rules for issuing drivers’ licenses. Maine was one of the few states that didn’t require proof of residency, let alone evidence the applicant was in this country legally. Dunlap became the chief defender of the status quo. The state had “an already rigorous license issuance process,” he told the Associated Press. After the US attorney announced that illegal aliens were being transported to Maine to get licenses, Dunlap wrote an op-ed for the Forecaster in which he claimed it was a “fallacy” that tightening the rules would halt the practice. Besides, he noted, letting suicide bombers have licenses had its advantages. “If individuals are in the system,” Dunlap said, “you can track them.”
The Legislature did change the rules to require some semi-legitimate indication an applicant resided in the state, although Maine still has more than 5000 licenses issued to people with no Social Security numbers. Dunlap said there could be reasonable explanations for that. They could be babies or something.
Before the residency regulations got changed, Robert O’Connell, Dunlap’s director of licensing, helped Niall Clarke, a guy he met in a Boston bar on St. Patrick’s Day 2006, get a license. Clarke was an Irish national with just two weeks left on his visa, but thanks to O’Connell, he took his written, vision, and road tests in a single day. A few months later, Clarke, now an illegal alien, used his license to buy a gun, which he used to hold up a Bangor bank.
Last month, Dunlap finally decided O’Connell hadn’t done anything wrong. “He is now clear and it is now over,” he told the Bangor Daily News. “There has been no discipline because there’s nothing to discipline him for.”
It’s time the Legislature helped Dunlap maximize his potential. Find him a bartending job.
Place your drink orders by e-mailingaldiamon@herniahill.net.
