Spitzer Poised To Ease Access To Licenses

ALBANY — The national security debate over giving illegal immigrants driver's licenses is heating up in New York, as Governor Spitzer considers throwing out a Pataki-era policy requiring applicants to submit valid Social Security numbers.

During last year's gubernatorial campaign, Mr. Spitzer said he would permit illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses, arguing that banning them from driving worsened the lives of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers without improving security. Mr. Spitzer's position came under fire from his Republican opponent, John Faso, but the governor has said little about the issue since.

Now, one New York group, the Coalition for a Secure Driver's License, says the governor is poised to repeal Governor Pataki's order and is urging the governor to reconsider changing a policy that it says is helping to thwart terrorist attacks.

"The 9/11 Commission pointed out that the 19 terrorists had at least 35 licenses," a board member of the coalition who lost his 23-year-old son in the World Trade Center attack, Peter Gadiel, said. "These licenses were the keys that enabled them to rent cars and open bank accounts, get credits cards, and buy flight lessons. It gave them everything they needed to plan, rehearse, and carry out their attacks."

Mr. Gadiel, a Republican who has also advocated for stricter border laws, said it was "insane" that the governor is considering extending licenses to illegal immigrants.

The group's protest has prompted at least one state lawmaker, a Republican senator of Brooklyn, to vow to introduce legislation that would undo any changes made by Mr. Spitzer to the existing license application policy, raising the possibility of a broader legislative debate. "I hate to be the next guy who didn't sign onto the legislation," the lawmaker, Martin Golden, said, "and, God forbid, terrorists strike again and there are 30,000 people dead. I'm not trying to be alarmist. I'm trying to be realistic." In October, the Spitzer campaign came out firmly in favor of allowing illegal immigrants to get licenses. "The facts show that restricting immigrants' access to drivers' licenses does nothing to improve security," a spokeswoman for Mr. Spitzer, Christine Anderson, told the Associated Press. "All it does is drive immigrants into the shadows, creating a class of people with no public records."

As the issue gains traction in Albany, Mr. Spitzer, who has moved other contentious issues such gay marriage off of the front burner, is showing signs of rethinking his position. "This is a complex issue, which we are reviewing carefully," Ms. Anderson, told the Albany Times Union yesterday. "Before moving forward with any proposal, we would do an exhaustive review all security-related maters."

Immigration rights groups and other critics of New York's Social Security requirement argue that Mr. Pataki's policy unfairly punishes law-abiding immigrants, making it difficult for them from to get to work, go to the doctor, or buy groceries.

Opponents of the Real ID Act and Social Security verification are spread across the political spectrum — from immigration legal defense organizations to libertarians to business groups and unions.

The direction that New York takes could have a national influence on the security debate over license laws.

Since the September 11 attacks, state governments have expanded driver's license identification requirements and many have begun preparing for the implementation of the Real ID Act of 2005, which requires that states abide by national standards for driver's licenses by 2008. States are waiting for the federal government to propose license standards.

New York is one of 36 states to verify the Social Security numbers of driver's license applicants, according to the coalition.

In 2002, Mr. Pataki issued an executive order that required driver's license applicants to submit Social Security numbers proving they were legal residents or provide proof that they were not eligible for a Social Security number. In 2004, to comply with an executive order issued by Mr. Pataki, the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles began sending out warning letters to New Yorkers with licenses whose Social Security number did not match federal data. About 58% of the 600,000 individuals who received the letter verified their Social Security numbers. As of last summer, the DMV had suspended 1,700 noncommercial licenses and 6,000 commercial licenses.

Mr. Pataki's policy was challenged in court and immigrant rights groups won an early victory when a Manhattan Supreme Court justice ordered the suspensions to be halted. On July 6, 2006, the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court vacated the injunction and upheld the policy.