Gov. Eliot Spitzer is abandoning his plan to issue driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, saying that opposition is just too overwhelming to move forward with such a policy.
He came to believe the proposal would ultimately be blocked, he said, either by legal challenges, a vote by the Legislature to deny financing for the Department of Motor Vehicles or a refusal by upstate county clerks to carry it out.
Mr. Spitzer’s plan touched off a national debate over whether issuing licenses to illegal immigrants would make the state more secure or improperly extend a privilege to them that should be reserved for legal residents.
Opposition to the proposal sent his poll numbers plunging.
The decision is likely to be a relief to many of his fellow Democrats in Albany and in Washington, who feared the issue could haunt them into next year’s election season.
It’s a relief to all politicians who spend their entire careers in fear of principled issues.
License, we don’t need any stinkin’ license!
Yep, logic and 12-20 Million illegals.
The rich and privileged will claim “class warfare” if you point out the effects of this war on the middle class.
Just another of a long line of “gotcha questions” for the political class to dance around.
He had a reasonable idea – to account for illegals now in the shadows if society. However, the idea flawed in that it gave illegals legitimacy.
The reason voters disliked it was neither reason – they just didn’t want illegals driving ! Yeah, like getting a license was the problem. Either way, this is good news.
Great they’ll all be coming to IL now.
Yes, our great politicos passed this in our state.
I was once in an accident with an illegal.
If they’re here, they’re gonna drive. If they’re gonna drive, we need some way to know who they are, because once the cop lets him go (As he did with the driver who hit me) they just disappear.
Try dealing with an Insurance company when you were hit by a phantom who no longer exists.
Like it or not, we have a sub-society of 12 million+ people who have no licensing, no accountability, no traceability. They don’t exist. Until they smash into you, then disappear.
Your graphic amounts to a screed against immigration in general. Unless you’re a Native American, your ancestors came from some place else, too, likely under dubious circumstances as immigration controls that we have today weren’t in place generations ago– unless you were white and European.
Using this hackneyed visual to denigrate people that come to the US to contribute to its economy in hopes of the same dreams your ancestors did, is just plain wrong, heartless, and ignorant of the circumstances of illegals.
I would expect more even from a KKK’er.
#6 “no licensing, no accountability, no traceability. They don’t exist. Until they smash into you, then disappear”
Sounds like Blackwater
Think of the Silver Lining here folks. If they can’t keep track of 20 million illegals, then it’ll be hard to keep track of you and I if we need to escape from the grasp of corporate big brother. They’ll only be looking close at the fake ID’s of the illegals. Can’t see the forest for the trees.
Democracy in action. Take it or leave it.
#2
Ladies and gentleman *drum roll* The self hating hispanic.
I am in full agreement with TooMuchTravel at no. 7 on the repulsive graphic. There is a lot of interesting and useful information on this site, but it won’t take much more of this stuff to get rid of me for good.
I also agree with Leroy Brown at no. 6 on basic issue. Driver’s licenses should be for keeping the roads safe, not playing to miscellaneous passions of the day
#6 Great Point!!! Legal or not the illegals are going to drive.
As a native American, I want all you immigrants off my land, NOW!!!
Go back to Europe where you wetbacks all belong!
#15 – I’m with you. I don’t care for them either.
#7 & 12 – Sorry – there’s nothing wrong with the graphic. There are “immigrants” who come here legally, work to become citizens, learn English, drop their crappy foreign culture and adopt the superior American culture. Then there are illegals: as for those – screw ’em.
>to contribute to its economy in hopes of the same dreams your ancestors did, is just plain wrong,
No it’s not the same as with the ancestors, hence the name Mexifornia. Many of the new illegals are part of a culture that thinks the new land is theirs to begin with. There’s even an ‘Aztlan’ movement that is looking to create an independent country out of the Southwest. If the Irish or Italians thought that Boston and New York belonged to them, the immigration laws would have been different.
The final comment: “It’s a relief to all politicians who spend their entire careers in fear of principled issues.” needs to be re-written to reflect the truth.
It’s a relief to all politicians who spend their entire careers supporting principled issues, such as sovereignty!
#6
Giving known criminals a driver’s license will lead directly to amnesty. Do you really think they are going to pay for real insurance? The solution is to eliminate that sub-society that you mentioned by sending them home. I’m all for giving illegal alien’s driver’s licenses as long as they are deported the moment they apply and their license revoked. If they want to be in this country, they should immigrate legally.
#7
Bullshit. *LEGAL* immigration is not the issue. The ancestors of which you speak immigrated legally. Legal immigrants are welcome. It is the people that subverted the immigration system that are the issue.
13. And if they are caught, they need to be arrested, not released.
That’s lucky…. the last thing you want is your workers to start following the law or getting sense of self esteem. If you do, next they’ll want to be paid a livable wage, health care, all sorts of things….
then who the hell is going to wash all the dishes, pick all the crops, and raise everyone’s children….
23. We’ll keep everyones children busy washing dishes, picking crops, mowing lawns, etc. Jus like we used to. Get em off of MySpace for a couple hours a day.
Hmm, am I missing something here? Why is a license to drive coupled to citizenship? Are citizens less skilled and need a certification to drive while illegal aliens are assumed to be perfect drivers?
Geez what’s up with the pic? This blog is getting more and more anti-hispanic by the day. You’ll soon join the Stormfront network? I knew Dvorak was a wannabe tech expert, but I didn’t know he was a hardcore white supremacist.
>>Let me know when you loose your job to them.
Not going to happen. The uneducated Mexicans you hate so much can’t DO my job, so I’m not going to “loose” it to them. On the other hand, if you stuff tacos, pick lettuce, or wash dishes for a living, I don’t blame you for being scared.
>>Contribute to your economy, gimmie a break. Is that why the
>>dollar is flying so high now?
If you think the declining value of the dollar is in any way related to Mexicans washing dishes in Chula Vista or El Paso, you’re even dumber than I thought.
#27…Mustard…..the illegal’s have also wiped out the construction business, and meat packing and are working on the trucking business…..the American citizens that used to work those jobs might disagree with you.
#23…Uncle Ben…..they will be done by the same groups of people who did them before 12 million illegals were allowed to set up shop here. The businesses that keep wages low because of hiring illegals will have to pay a decent wage with benifit’s, instead of below minimum, without bennies. Then the cost of education and health care will drop substantially throughout the southwest and west.
We have had a LEGAL guest worker system since before WWII…..if the illegal’s are sent home, then those that want to come here just to work will be able to, and those who wish to move here permanetly will also be able to. At the present time it’s almost impossible(unless you have a needed skill) for Hispanic’s to get into the country legally.
Yes….it’s true that we are all immigrent’s in this country(except the Indians(not the one’s with perfect English))…..but a lot of us are desended from people who came here when there was no rules about entering the country, other’s(like my Dad’s family) came BEFORE it was a country, and other’s like my Grandfather’s family came here under strict rules but legally. Even blacks were made citizens after the Civil War.
>>#27 aha, outsourcing was never going to happen either, right?
Outsourcing is a completely separate and distinct issue, m’hijito. Taking high-level jobs and shipping them to India is not the same thing as allowing illegal aliens into the country to stuff tacos and scrub dirty dishes.
I’m more concerned with outsourcing than I am with who’s making my bean burrito, but I don’t see any spittle-flecked calls to drop a nuke on Lahore or Chennai. Funny, that.
Outsourcing is a completely separate and distinct issue
No it’s not, in both cases employers are looking for savings in wages, in both cases government failed to protect the citizens (signing wrong trade agreements/not executing existing laws, etc.) and corps are using and abusing that fact.
#7. Native Americans came from somewhere else too: Asia, to be precise. Did you think they evolved from apes in North America, or were planted here by Divine power?
I’m more concerned about illegal immigration than outsourcing. I’m not so elitist as to devalue manual labor. Those jobs number in the tens of millions, who make not much, while outsourcing affects fewer jobs. The benefits of eliminating higher wage jobs is greater. I also approve of outsourcing jobs in medicine which will lower health care costs for the people at the lower end of the economic ladder.