Spitzer has reversed course on his plan for drivers licenses to illegal aliens. Smart move, Governor. NY Times castigates him as being weak.
Spitzer's plan to provide NY drivers licenses to illegals is a bad idea and the Times justification of it is worse. Driving is a privilege. Of course we want safe drivers, but providing a license to people who live in NY, or anywhere else, illegally is bad public policy that flies in the face of the rule of law. Such privileges only encourage illegals to remain illegal. Insurance companies should not provide insurance to illegals. No-fault coverage will cover those people injured or sustaining damage by illegals.
"In this case, Mr. Spitzer is trying to make certain there is a safe driver behind the wheel of every car. That is no small matter. More than 40,000 people die in car crashes in the United States every year, more than 3,000 of them in New York State.To help lower that toll, Mr. Spitzer recently announced that New York would join eight other states that do not require licensed drivers to prove that they are in the country legally. Instead, prospective drivers will need to prove exactly who they are, that they can drive safely, that they have car insurance, and that they live in New York State.
Critics of Mr. Spitzer’s plan are trying to paint it as a threat to national security. But as the governor outlined in a speech on Friday, there are important ways in which the opposite is true. His plan would give faces and addresses to many of the one million people who are not here legally, who live in the shadows. It would also make it vastly more difficult for someone to get more than one license. Richard Clarke, an adviser under the last four presidents, mostly on national security issues, has said that making driver’s licenses available to immigrants regardless of their legal status would promote security because “it is far preferable for the state to know who is living in it and driving on its roads.""
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