Starting on July 1 when you go to get or renew your Missouri driver's license you will have to prove that you are in this country legally. When you go into the license bureau you will have to have in hand either your birth certificate or a U.S. passport. The changes are a result of Senate Bill 1233, which according to a press release issued by the Department of Revenue, requires proof of "the rightful legal claim to be present in the United States."

According to the release the changes are "aimed at ensuring the validity of the licenses (the department) issues."

Department director Trish Vincent says, "I understand it isn't as convenient ..."

Inconvenient?

We pride ourselves upon the idea that in this country you are innocent until proven guilty. But apparently that maxim does not hold true for the Department of Revenue. Because now when you walk into one of their offices you are automatically considered a liar.

In our system of law it should be the department who has to prove that you are not here legally. The burden of proof lies with the accuser, not with the accused.

I have a "rightful legal claim to be present in the United States" because I was born here. And until someone can "prove" otherwise, it should not be incumbent upon me to prove anything.

I'm certain that "homeland security" and "illegal immigration" were big factors in this wonderful new legislation. To which I say, so what? What good is that going to do? Not one bit.

All but one of the September 11th hijackers had identification; some were valid, some were forged.

It doesn't matter how they got it, they still had "identification."

Someone intent upon causing harm to our country isn't going to be deterred by the fact that we have to show a birth certificate to get our driver's licenses. They're going to forge what they need and be on their merry way.

Illegal immigrants don't seem to need identification at all.

They are bussed around by sympathetics as is evidenced by the recent crash near St. Louis. It won't matter one whit to illegals that we law-abiding citizens have to now prove we are citizens.

These laws will not stop one single terrorist attack and they will not stop one single illegal immigrant.

It seems to me that our government should actually be out looking for terrorists and illegals, and working towards legally proving that they are up to no good, instead of hassling law-abiding people with another layer of bureaucratic nonsense.

Nick Wright is an editorial assistant at the Nevada Daily Mail.