“Out of the shadows�
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- September
- 24
Local advocates are reacting to New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s Friday announcement that the state would soon begin to provide driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants who possess valid foreign passports.
The announcement  which is of particular interest to the Rockland community, where a few police departments routinely issue summonses to illegal immigrants for unlicensed vehicle operation  has drawn a firestorm of debate from lawmakers, security experts and the general public.
Opponents worry that the move may enable security breaches and threaten the nation’s security, since licenses are accepted almost universally as a form of identification, particularly at airports and banks.
But supporters have welcomed the change, saying that bringing the undocumented out of the shadows establishes a record of their whereabouts and gets uninsured and unlicensed drivers off the roads.
An estimated 500,000 to 1 million undocumented immigrants in New York are currently driving without licenses or car insurance or with fake documents, Spitzer said.
The new policy represents a reversal of the Gov. George Pataki administration’s move to verify Social Security numbers as part of a tightening of the procedure for foreign-born applicants.
Immigrant advocates uniformly applauded Spitzer’s decision, saying the policy represents fair treatment of hardworking family people. But critics have roundly condemned it, recalling that most of the Sept. 11 hijackers had legally acquired licenses when they boarded the airplanes they used as murder weapons.
Questions continue to be raised as to how the new policy will fit into developing federal immigration legislation.
Currently, eight other states  Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington  do not require drivers to prove legal status in order to obtain a license.
This entry was posted
on Monday, September 24th, 2007 at 6:37 pm by Suzan Clarke.
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This whole thing is an outrage. Eliot Spitzer should be
thrown out of office at once. First the scandal of a couple
of months ago and now this nightmare. All he is doing here
once again is rewarding illegal activity. If you told me It was a way to track them and deport them I’d say o.k. but it’s not. Does anyone think That these people will pay for insurance? I’ve lived here all my life and I can’t afford
the 1,500 a year I have to pay. They will drive if they have
a license or not and if they have insurance or not. If this brings them out of the shadows they should be deported because even though they have a drivers license they are still here Illegally. Suzan you still didn’t comment on my
blog from your “hispanic heritage month” report. What gives?
Assuming “they’re going to drive, license or not…”
Would I rather get into an accident with an unlicensed, uninsured driver, or someone who can use their license to at least get their care documented and insured properly? As a practical matter, I’d choose the former.
Oh, I mean the latter. (Crazy me!)
I’m not sure how it works Richard. Are you telling me before
they get a license they must prove they have Insurance first? I don’t remember that at all. If this is not the case
then just because they have a license does not mean they will get insurance. If they are not forced to get insurance
then a legal license does nothing and therefore this program
is useless.if they had insurance Americans could start to sue Illegals rather than the other way around.