(NaturalNews) The left-wing extremists who run California operate by catering to specific demographics in order to remain in power — specifically, the state's immigrant population, whether staying in the country legally or illegally.

About nine months ago, the California Legislature authorized, and Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown signed, a bill to allow the state to issue driver's licenses to illegal aliens. By all measures, the program has been a success (or failure, depending on your point of view). Over 500,000 licenses have been issued so far, despite the fact that these folks aren't even in the country legally.

In California and a few other places in the country, driving is treated as a "right" where everywhere else it is treated as a "privilege."

As reported by Fox News Latino:

"Armando Botello, a spokesman for the state's Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), said ... that the milestone was reached last week. 'For us, the DMV, it is a source of great pride to have reached half a million this soon. We thought we would issue half a million applications per year and we did it in 9 months. This means the DMV work is paying off and that all drivers will be safer now,' said Botello."

Driving is a right, not a privilege

Here's the "logic" of the state's Democratic leaders: We must issue licenses to those here illegally rather than deport them and continue preserving such privileges for American citizens or immigrants who are in the country legally.

The state began its program in January, when it started providing special permits after a law took effect allowing illegal aliens to get one, as long as they provided an identification document, proof of residence and passed a written exam (so requiring an ID to get a driver's license is okay, but requiring one to vote is discriminatory, racist and bigoted — got it).

Since the California DMV does not ask applicants to provide their race or ethnicity (like the U.S. Census Bureau does), it's not known how many of the 500,000-plus applicants are Latino, Fox News said, though Botello said most were.

The number of licenses already issued has surprised DMV officials, who say they did not expect the number to reach half a million until December. He said DMV estimates say there are 1.4 million potential applicants in the state.

"We thought we would issue half a million in one year and we did it in nine months. I think it will be difficult that we reach one million in the next nine months because there are fewer people coming to the office," he said.

Initially, the licenses generated huge interest; there were long lines at DMV offices in the first two months of the year.

And why not? California leftists have long catered to the "noble" immigrant, who of course is just trying to make a better living, instead of American citizens who must live by a different set of rules.

As for the driver's license program, it reportedly stemmed from a "study" by the DMV which claimed that licensing drivers would reduce traffic fatalities in the state, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Study based on illogical premise

But, as noted by Immigration Reform, the study was based on an illogical premise.

"While it is accurate that the DMV report found that '...unlicensed drivers are much more hazardous on the road than are validly licensed drivers,' – three times more likely to cause a fatal crash – that is a far cry from concluding that driving would be safer if they had licenses," the group said in a follow-up to the LA Times story.

"Factors that accompany accidents, such as driving while intoxicated and lack of driving experience are not going to change just because an illegal alien driver has a license. Rather, the availability of a license is likely to simply increase the likelihood that an illegal alien will be on the road," it added.

Read the full rebuttal here.

Sources used:

FellowshipOfTheMinds.com

Latino.FoxNewscom

WashingtonPost.com

ImmigrationReform.com

LATimes.com