News Update - November 16, 2007Governor Spitzer Changes Course Again in New York State Driver's License for Undocumented Immigrants IssueOn November 13th, Governor Spitzer revealed that he would drop his proposed plan for licensing undocumented immigrants of New York who wish to drive. He had first proposed giving them regular licenses and after a huge uproar had moved to a three tier plan of licenses valid under the the Real ID Act, licenses valid under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative for crossing borders, and licenses for others that would not be valid for entry onto airplanes, federal buildings, or crossing borders. His three tier program did nothing to quell the voices of those opposed to his original plan and raised strong objections from immigrant rights advocates who said that the third form of licensing stigmatized its holders to local law authorities who are becoming increasingly involved in immigration law enforcement. In hindsight, the licensing debacle could possibly have been avoided
if the governor had built up support in the legislature prior to
proposing the plan publicly and if he had maintained better relations
with the Republican leader of the State Senate, Joseph Bruno. Implementation
of the three tier program would have made New York the largest state
to adopt the Real ID Act, the federal government's plan for uniform
licensing which has been decried as too expensive for the states.
Mr. Spitzer backed away from his commitment to the Real ID Act at
the same time saying that the state would put the plan on hold until
federal regulations for Real ID licenses were issued next year before
deciding the state's course. † The author is a 26+ year practitioner of immigration law based in New York City. He was awarded the Sidney A. Levine prize for best legal writing at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 1977 and has written extensively on immigration over the past years for the ethnic newspapers, World Journal, Sing Tao, Pakistan Calling, Muhasha and OCS. He has testified as an expert on immigration in civil court proceedings and was recognized by the Taiwan government in 1985 for his work protecting human rights. His article, "The Bush Temporary Worker Proposal and Comparative Pending Legislation: an Analysis" was Interpreter Releases' cover display article at the American Immigration Lawyers Association annual conference in 2004, and his victory in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in a case of first impression nationwide, Firstland International v. INS, successfully challenged INS' policy of over 40 years of revoking approved immigrant visa petitions under a nebulous standard of proof. Its value as precedent, however, was short-lived as it was specifically targeted by the Administration in the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004. ‡ This article © 2007 Alan Lee, Esq.
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Copyright © 2003-2012 Alan Lee,
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