Spitzer scheme a danger to U.S.

• Position: Local Policies Unfair to American Citizens - Eliot Spitzer's social policy fot illegal immigrants

Gov. Eliot Spitzer's proposal to grant driver's licenses to illegal aliens is no more than political pandering to vocal interest groups and cheap labor employers. Moreover, it would endanger the security of all Americans, while adding to the already significant burden that New Yorkers bear as a result of mass illegal immigration, charges Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). Spitzer's plan, according to polls, is opposed strongly by a large majority of New Yorkers, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and by many county clerks who run local Department of Motor Vehicles offices.

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"No Americans have suffered more and paid a greater price than the people of New York for lax attention to homeland security," stresses Stein. "All but one of the 9/11 terrorists who killed thousands of Americans--the majority on the southern tip of Manhattan--boarded flights without drawing unwelcome attention by using valid U.S. driver's licenses, Investigators, including the 9/11 Commission, have all concluded that obtaining valid driver's licenses was critical to the terrorists' ability to carry out their mission. If Gov. Spitzer's plan is implemented, future terrorists in need of a valid U.S. identity document will be able to get one simply by proving that they can parallel park."

Stein dismisses Spitzer's contention that giving illegal aliens driver's licenses is necessary to ensure road safety in New York. "Gov. Spitzer's rationalization is essentially the same one Pres. George W. Bush used in...