Governor Met With Chertoff Over License Plan

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The New York Sun

ALBANY — Governor Spitzer said yesterday that his new plan to make it easier for illegal immigrants to get driver’s licenses while creating one of the most secure licenses in the nation is the result of conversations with an old friend, the U.S. homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff.

“There is enormous support from those who understand these are the objectives and these have been the objectives,” Mr. Spitzer told the Associated Press. “There is also opposition from fringe on the other side who simply don’t want to give the immigrant community any rights,” he said.

Mr. Spitzer’s new plan is aimed at protecting the state’s border with Canada from terrorism as well as easing cross-border economic growth of northern communities from Buffalo to Plattsburgh.

But early reaction found that it didn’t satisfy Mr. Spitzer’s critics and it may have angered immigrant advocates who supported Mr. Spitzer’s original plan.

Under Mr. Spitzer’s new administrative order, New York will be the fourth state to agree on federally approved secure licenses, following Arizona, Vermont, and Washington.

New York will create three types of driver’s licenses: a traditional state license; an “enhanced driver’s license” that will be as secure as a passport; and a license that meets new federal standards of the Real ID Act — a national and secure identification that would make it much harder for terrorists to get licenses. But the license will be marked that it is not proof of legal residency in America, and it could lead police and officials to suspect the holder may be an illegal immigrant.

“The plan we have created in conjunction with the federal government is one that accomplishes multiple objectives,” Mr. Spitzer said.

The advocacy group New Yorkers Against Driver’s Licenses for Illegal Aliens finds the new plan “fatally flawed” because an illegal immigrant could still get a driver’s license.


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