While two former New York City Mayors and the current one there might not say Governor Eliot Spitzer is stupid for announcing that New York will now issue drivers licenses to illegal aliens, they do not agree with his decision:
Ed Koch, Rudy Giuliani and Mike Bloomberg. It’s not often you find the three of them nodding their heads in agreement on a political issue. And yet all three – a Democrat, a Republican and a (newly minted) independent – are on the same page when it comes to Gov. Spitzer’s executive order allowing illegal immigrants to obtain a New York driver’s license. They’re against it – even though, as mayor, all three bent over backward to extend benefits to illegal aliens.
And they’re hardly alone.
Spitzer’s high-decibel denunciation of his critics notwithstanding, the arguments against this idea are hardly “knee-jerk reactions” based on “fear and selfishness.” They are very realistic concerns that are being addressed by state legislatures across the country. Indeed, Spitzer’s unilateral order flies in the face of the national post-9/11 trend – which has been to tighten the restrictions on obtaining a driver’s license and make those documents more secure. New York state, for example, passed a law requiring proof of legal residence as a condition for obtaining a license, in line with the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission; nearly every other state similarly tightened up. New Jersey converted to a photo-ID license, complete with a dozen covert security features.
The reason for this is obvious: Eighteen of the 19 terrorists who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks had valid driver’s licenses, though none was a U.S. citizen and several were here on expired visas. The 9/11 Commission concluded that, for a terrorist, travel documents are nearly as important as an actual weapon.
Some 9/11 family members are a little more direct in their criticism of Spitzer:
Angry relatives of 9/11 victims yesterday fumed that Gov. Spitzer’s decision to allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses provides a dangerous new tool for terrorists.
“When the next attack comes, I will hold [Spitzer] culpable for the murders,” said Joan Molinaro, who lost her firefighter son on 9/11. “It better not be one of my daughters or one of my grandchildren,” she told a legislative hearing held by Republican assemblymen.
Under Spitzer’s directive, the state will start issuing licenses later this year to people who don’t have Social Security cards. The change will begin in December, but state lawmakers opposed to the plan have said they may sue to try stop it or pass legislation creating restrictions.
“The governor seems to have lost his mind and wants to give in to terrorists,” Peter Gadiel, whose son James was on the 103rd floor of the trade center’s north tower when he died, told the legislators. “Every illegal is a person whose true identity and possible history of violence and terrorism is unknown. Thus, any illegal may be a terrorist,” said Gadiel, founder of the group 9/11 Families for a Secure America.
Molinaro said driver’s licenses enabled al Qaeda terrorists to gain access to the jets they used to attack America on 9/11. “I’m just a mother. I lost my son on 9/11, and I needed answers,” she said. “My answer came that a small piece of paper that gives privileges to drive in the country was the weapon that was used to hijack planes and kill 3,000 Americans.”
We were dumb to issue drivers licenses to illegal aliens before 9/11 yet Governor Spitzer wants to go back to that practice in New York State where most of the victims of those attacks resided. Stupid is as stupid does.