I had thought about adding my two cents to the debate over NY Governor Elliot Spitzer’s plan to license illegal immigrants, but restrained myself until now. Now that the plan has been dropped (I almost said over, but I have a feeling it’s far from over) I’ll make some observations.

  • I have felt all along that the real underlying issue wasn’t drivers licenses for non-documented persons, but whether a drivers license is proof of citizenship, i.e. for border crossings. Spitzer, in his own crazy-like-a-fox way, was making a point to the US government that if a drivers license is no longer enough proof to re-enter the country from Canada, then why require people to prove their citizenship to get one?

  • Spitzer, a former star attorney-general, understandably feels that if you have people here illegally, whether they snuck across the border undocumented, or vanished into anonymity by letting a visa expire, dangling a carrot in front of them in the form of a drivers license is a good way to get them into ‘the system’ and have some record of them kept. What does it matter if they have a NY Drivers license after they’ve been deported? Or, if they have a valid drivers license, they’ll need insurance, a job to pay for it, a social security number, pay taxes, etc. All of which puts money into our economy and tax coffers that otherwise might be lost.
  • What didn’t get a lot of talk was the part of his proposal that created three types of drivers licenses. The top-level, which was supposed to be good enough to use to cross the border into Canada or Mexico, as well as board domestic airline flights, cost a little more, but about half of what a passport costs. You’d probably be able to get one quicker too.

    Spitzer was sending a wakeup call to the US Government that said ‘if you’re going to gouge the citizens with huge fees for a passport, we can do it too and undercut your price.’

I’ve wondered how much of a non-issue it really would have been, if it was implemented. How many non-documented aliens (I don’t even think the term illegal aliens fits here.) would really show up at a DMV office with their passport or a foreign birth certificate and proof of residence? The last thing someone who is here illegally would want to do is introduce themselves to a government representative.

With so many County Clerks against this, even if they were obligated to issue the licenses, what would stop them from sending a list of them to INS/DHS every month? The drivers license database is at the core of every police agency’s tools. I just don’t think someone here illegally would get a drivers license under their real identity.

I think Spitzer knew from the start that this would go nowhere. It was a red herring, designed to force a couple other issues into the attention of the US government. While Spitzer is the state governor, a pretty powerful position in NY, he doesn’t have any power on a federal level, not directly anyway. This is his way of having an impact on a federal level using his position as a state governor. Spitzer’s an accomplished political player. This just shows he knows the ropes and can get things done, even outside the scope of his appointed job.

As I said, the issue isn’t over yet, it’s just been forced into the federal arena.