The great Tribuna Newspaper gives teh rundown on Mayor Boughton's latest move.

A recent announcement by Mayor Boughton has unleashed a flurry of speculation, suspicion and half-truths - with everyone from news reporters to people in the street talking about the "crackdown on Massachusetts plates."

All we know for certain is that the city intends to make a list of vehicles with out-of state plates that have been parked on local streets for much longer than a weekend visit or a family reunion. What is really going on? Is it about Massachusetts plates? Is it about targeting immigrants? Or is it, as with so many issues today, much more complicated?

Look, lets stop kidding ourselves. This isn't complicated and (make sure your sitting down) it's makes sense.

This is a crackdown on illegal immigrants who drive around with out-of-state plates, it's that simple. Think about it ...who are the majority of people in Connecticut who drive around with out-of-state paltes? You guess it, illegal immigrants.

What's the problem with saying the obvious? If most of these people who are driving around with out-of-state plates are uninsured, they should have their cars taken off the road...period. This is DANBURY CONNECTICUT which is about 70-100 miles from the Massachusetts state line and a rock throw from the New York state line. The reason they're so many cars on the road with Massachusetts out-of-state plates as opposed to New York State out fo state plates is simply becasue it's easier to register a car in Massachusetts than New York and Connecticut.

Several states have considerably more lenient rules for motor vehicle licensing and registration. For example, just over the line in Massachusetts, one can register a car by presenting proof of ownership and insurance coverage. Some argue that this increases public safety by cutting down on the number of uninsured vehicles on the road. On the other hand, Connecticut has very strict requirements, whether applying for a driver’s license or registering a car. At any rate, as the REAL ID Act looms on the horizon - which sets clear and stringent standards for drivers’ licenses to be used as identification - all states will need to re-examine their policies to comply with the federal mandate.

It's a no-brainer.

Illegal immigrants go to Mass to get their car registered and then drive around Danbury with no problem. Ususally, the insurance will run out and WHAM, an accident happens and the victim is screwed.

Keep this simple folks, this is a plan that can go two ways 1.) to get the out-of-state cars off the street and 2.) having a REALLY easy way to track down people who are possible illegal immigrants.

Skip the taxes nonsense. The taxes off these cars are a dime in the bucket at the most. If a person is driving a car illegally, it means that they probably can't get the car registered legally so the city will never see the money anyway.

Think about it folks. This is a attempt to get illegal cars off the street that can turn into a crackdown in a second...plain and simple.

The problem is, like most issues centering around illegal immigration, politicians like to dance around the obvious thus make themselves look bad in the process.

As is all too often the case, what should be a relatively minor concern seems to be rapidly growing into a major panic. A local Portuguese-language newspaper described the proposal as "one more measure" taken by the mayor to "make illegal immigrants' lives more difficult." A local Brazilian business owner claims that Main Street's economy is getting so bad because of the “crackdown” on illegal immigrants that many proprietors are closing up shop.

Mayor Boughton said that his stance on this issue has been "lost in translation." For example, while he is well aware of the fact that those without a green card cannot acquire a driver's license or register a car in the state. But, he argued, that does not give people without green cards permission to break the driving laws. "Driving without a license or the proper documents can endanger all residents, regardless of status," Boughton said. "By working together, we can make sure that people can get to the places that they need to be and protect the public safety of all residents. If people are undocumented, they have to look for other means of transportation."

The mayor emphasized that no proposal on this matter will be announced until his State of the City address in December. "The purpose of this ‘possible initiative' is to generate revenue through unpaid taxes from [cars with] out-of-state license plates. [Mayor] Fabrizi in Bridgeport launched a similar program and found thousands of cars that were not registered in Bridgeport or Connecticut. It cost the city millions of dollars. This is not about immigrants. All people have to obey the law."

Lost in translation...yeah right. And the noise ordinance didn't have ANYTHING TO DO WITH VOLLEYBALL GAMES.

Okay, comparing Bridgeport to Danbury is like comparing a ant to an Elephant. Again, I challenge anyone to do an estimate and find out how much the city would recieve in revenue by going after out-of-state cars. Just think about it...if a person has a out-of-state car, it's most likely because they can't get their car registered through the legal process therefore, when they nabbed for having an out-of-state car, it's not like they're going to go and get the car registered because MOST LIKELY THEY'RE ILLEGAL.

Here's a case when I'm in agreement with the Mayor. The people driving illegal cars needs to stop period. I just can't stand it when people like Boughton just won't come out and say the obvious. Doing this song and dance will just come back to bite you in the butt in the end so why do it. NO ONE beleives that the nosie ordiance wasn't really a volleyball ordiance and they won't believe that this isn't targeting illegal immigrants who why try to spin it?

In this case, Boughton is well within his rights to make this happen and he'll have the support of the public behind him.

1. The cars are illegal.

2. The people driving them are probably illegal.

3. It's against the law to have an out-of-state plate on a car after a certain period of time.

4. We're coming after any car that has out-of-state plates.

5. We're going to check to see why your driving around with a car with an out-of-state plate.

6. If your here illegally, we're going to easily find out because your dumb enough to drive around with a car with an out-of-state plates for more than thirty days

Look, I'm not a fan of most of the silliness coming out of City Hall regarding illegal immigration. For the most part, it's just non-productive and looks more like a political show. On the other hand, if I was here illegally, I wouldn't do anything to give away that I'm here illegally like DRIVING AROUND WITH A CAR WITH OUT-OF-STATE PLATES FOR YEARS.

This is a case where the mayor should just come out and say what this is and stop the dancing. The proposal makes sense and there should be no sympathy for people who are silly enough to be driving around illegally getting into accidents.

When Boughton make statements like "this isn't about illegal immigrants," all he is doing is digging a deeper hole for himself just like the volleyball issue. Everyone in the city knows the deal with the out-of-state cars and who's driving them. Just come out and say the obvious and get the cars off the street.

It almost makes me wonder about the timing of this proposal. Illegal cars has been a serious issue for years in Danbury so why the sudden movement now? This probably won't get any traction until spring of next year and 2007 is an election year. Why wan't this done in 2006 or 2005? It wasn't like people werent complaining about the issue or didn't know about the out-of-state scam?