Posted on 09/22/2007 11:22:45 AM PDT by jonyyeh
(CBS) NEW YORK They were celebrating outside the governor's office Friday as Eliot Spitzer handed a landmark victory to a half-million illegal immigrants.
The state will no longer require proof of citizenship for driver's licenses.
"We're changing our policy with respect to getting more people out of shadows and into the system so people don't hide they're here," Spitzer said.
He said the current restrictions on non-citizens have filled the roads with unlicensed drivers five times more likely to get into accidents.
But the also called it a matter of justice.
"As long as I'm governor we won't pretend they don't exist, cut them off from society," Spitzer said.
But the action triggered a bitter response from some 9/11 family members, who said the governor would be providing identification for potential terrorists.
And a Brooklyn state senator says he'll try to overturn the decision.
"This governor has chosen to give the keys to the city, the keys to the state to terrorism," Golden said.
As for the public, it's clear that people have strong feelings on both sides of the issue.
"I don’t think if you're here illegally you should have the same privileges people who are here legally do," office manager Cliff Hoffman said.
Added legal word processor Bill Slater: "I think illegal people are getting a free ride. I don't think it's fair to other hard-working citizens who do work hard."
Planning consultant John Madden said the move is also a pre-emptive strike against another type of potentially hazardous driver.
"The problem is they're gonna drive anyway," Madden said. "You might as well make them legal drivers with insurance."
The new rules will start to kick in at the end of the year, unless someone finds a way to put a halt to them.
Under the new policy, the Department of Motor Vehicles will accept foreign passports and birth certificates from immigrants as proof of identification. They will no longer need to provide a Social Security card.
You can't expect rational thought out of a guy like that.
“”The problem is they’re gonna drive anyway,” Madden said. “You might as well make them legal drivers with insurance.””
Leave the bank vaults open for bank robbers too!
He is interested in only one thing: making as many Democrat voters as possible.
I used to live in New York state. I am glad I moved away from New York State before the 2006 election. Now I think the state is worst off with Spitzer as governor. I don’t think Pataki would of allowed this, especially after 9/11.
I live in Arizona, which is good because the Republicans in the State House and State Senate make sure that Governor Napolitano doesn’t give driver licenses to illegals. Actually, Napolitano once said that she would like to give illegals driver’s licenses. Thank god that the Republicans in Arizona and the voters of Arizona that passes Prop. 200 in 2004 showed that Arizonans don’t want licenses going to illegals.
What about arresting them, throwing them in jail, and then deporing them?
Bush’s REAL legacy: carrying Ted kennedy’s jockstrap.
Absurd. Amazing how weakly we defend our sovereignty during a time of war. It is pure luck that we haven’t been hit again with how open we leave our Southern border and with the lackadaisical approach we take to immigration enforcement.
A victory for all NY terrorists.
“What about arresting them, throwing them in jail, and then deporing them?”
And not a peep out of the White House for this criminal enablement..........oh sorry......I forgot who is in the White House........
And we have “Big Joe” too!
Thanks for the map.
There is no excuse, no justification for this. The only beneficiaries are illegal aliens, the greedy shills that employ them, and terrorists.
Under what authority can Governor Spitzer do this? He’s makin up his own laws.
Agree.
This is the DUMBEST thing I ever heard (ever)!!
No state should accept a New York State License as identification now.
The problem is that now all these newly licensed NY drivers can drive with that license anywhere in the US. (including those who will go to NY for a license, provide a NY address, then return to their illegally adopted home state)
Gov. Pataki made the rules for getting a license more stringent than they were. At the time he took office, the big problem was people registering vehicles with bogus insurance cards. He changed the system to make it almost impossible to fake insurance cards. He then required SSNs to go after dead beat fathers. Before he left office, DMV started matching the unchecked SSNs of license holders against the SSA records. Those licenses that did not match were immediately revoked. Pataki got it. Spitzer is schmuck. This traitor needs to be impeached.
btt
By making the process of getting a driver’s license more restrictive, you increase the chances that the license is legit and the holder is generally a law-abiding citizen who would make the effort not to circumvent the law. This basic concept is apparently beyond the grasp of our illustrious Governor...
As to impeachment of this self-aggrandizer, I’d be all for it.
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