DMV Program to Prevent ID Fraud

* Re “Latino Group Faults DMV on Fraud Program,” April 6:

I would assume that Nativo Lopez and Helen Ortega are licensed California drivers and had to follow all the rules and regulations required to secure and maintain a valid California driver’s license. Therefore, I fail to see the validity of their objections to the DMV fraud program.

The program should have been in force years ago. It does not target the Latino population per se but any and all individuals (citizens, immigrants, illegal aliens) who have attempted to fraudulently utilize a “pirated” or erroneous Social Security number to obtain a driver’s license. That act in itself is a crime, along with driving without a license or with a suspended license. The advice offered in the article should be followed: “Follow the rules” and “don’t get arrested.”

S.W. GUZY JR.

Garden Grove

* Racial profiling? Come on. The DMV is doing its job in stopping fraud. We call it abiding by the laws of this country. Using invalid IDs and giving false information in order to obtain a driver’s license is a crime and should be punished accordingly. If you wish to live in this country, do as we are all expected to do: Abide by the laws of the United States.

RAY and YOLANDE D’ANDREA

Anaheim

* I fail to see why Nativo Lopez has any credibility to protest injustice. As I recall, his own record is questionable, and he has never been able to account for taxpayer money that was to be used to benefit Latinos.

Identity theft is a serious offense and has caused many innocent victims to suffer. It is a criminal act to forge a Social Security number. The image of justice is supposed to be blind, so that race or position is not taken into account. But we are supposed to bend the laws over and over again to excuse the actions of certain people? I would never get away with such behavior in Mexico.

LINDA PRIMROSE

Corona del Mar

* Your article is a perfect example of “Watch out when the government wants to help you.”

I have had a California license since 1947. It just took me three months to renew it because my Social Security records used my middle initial rather than my middle name. The DMV suggested I change my name! It took Assemblyman Tom Harman’s office to finally get my license. Even some of the DMV officials I spoke with admitted this fraud program was a joke and a make-work project.

BRUCE M. STARK

Seal Beach