NY Senate Blocks Driver's Licenses for the Undocumented

by NAM (reposted)

Wed, Oct 24, 2007 7:48AM

Originally From New America Media

Wednesday, October 24, 2007 : NEW YORK -- A plan to give driver's licenses to the undocumented failed in the New York state Senate on Monday, reports Univision Online. Republicans rejected the measure, which was announced Sep. 21, by a vote of 39-19, saying it put state security in jeopardy.

Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer proposed the plan, which would have brought thousands of fingerprints of the undocumented into an official database. Keeping track of the estimated 150,000 undocumented taking part in the program would make the streets safer, he said, and reduce insurance costs for all. Some employees of the state Dept. of Motor Vehicles offices protested and said they would refuse to process the applications. Families of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks also opposed the measure.

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For more information: http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_...

§New Yorkers Rebel Against Drivers Licenses for Undocumented

by Randy Shaw via Beyond Chron

Wed, Oct 24, 2007 7:56AM

Wednesday, October 24, 2007 : New York City is home to millions of recent immigrants, but racist, anti-immigrant attitudes still prevail in much of the state. This reality became clear in the wake of Governor Elliot Spitzer’s decision to grant drivers licenses without proof of legal status. Polls show 72% of New Yorkers opposing Spitzer’s action, and the once-popular Governor has seen his popularity ratings plunge since he took a common sense action to help undocumented immigrants.

While CNN’s Lou Dobbs and other opponents of Spitzer’s action claim that the Governor has opened the door to terrorism, Latino immigrants are not a group typically associated with such acts. Opposition to immigrant drivers’ licenses in New York, as in California, is really about racism, and its persistence even in the bluest of states.

New York Governor Elliot Spitzer has been having a tough time. After easily winning election last November, Spitzer got into a nasty fight with Republican State Senate leader Joseph Bruno that led the Governor’s staff to engage in unethical conduct. Now Spitzer has seen his poll numbers crash in response to his directive that driver’s licenses issue without proof of citizenship.

Californians recall how Governor Gray Davis was recalled partly in response to his signing legislation for immigrant drivers’ licenses. Governor Schwarzengger quickly got the measure repealed.

Upstate New York, which lacks an immigrant political base, is apoplectic over Spitzer’s action. And since no part of that region is a terrorist target, the link between such acts and drivers’ licenses is tenuous, if not non-existent.

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