Spitzer Allows Undocumented to Drive

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Spitzer Allows Undocumented to Drive

September 28, 2007

By April Drew

NEW York Governor Eliot Spitzer announced Friday, September 21 a major policy change that will allow undocumented New Yorkers to obtain a driver’s license beginning in December.

Presently the only way to get a driver’s license in New York is through obtaining a formal letter of eligibility from the Social Security office, a letter that was only obtainable by individuals who have legal immigration status.

However, under Spitzer’s new policy change, which does not require legislative approval, an estimated 750,000 undocumented New Yorkers will now be eligible for a license once they can produce a valid form of identification, including a passport.

Beginning immediately, individuals who previously held a New York state license (or currently have), but were unable to renew it, will receive formal letters from the DMV. Each driver will be notified about the new policy change, and the re-licensing process will begin in December.

Those who receive letters will still need to prove their identity, date of birth and fitness to drive before being issued with a new license. These licenses will be valid for eight years.

A second phase will begin in April 2007 and will be open to all New Yorkers who wish to obtain a license for the first time. New drivers will be required to renew their license again in five years.

According to Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) Commissioner David Swarts, this process will be more meticulous, taking up to six weeks to process the authenticity of foreign passports and other foreign identity documents.

New York will join the other eight states — Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington — which do not require drivers to prove their legal status to obtain a license.

To prevent multitudes of people from other states coming to New York to apply for a license, Swarts said Spitzer will propose legislation that would require the DMV to look for proof of residency while applying for a license.

In 2002, Governor George Pataki delivered an executive order that ordered driver’s license applicants to provide a Social Security number to verify they were legal residents of the state. In 2004, following Pataki’s orders, the New York DMV sent warning letters to New Yorkers with licenses whose Social Security numbers didn’t match federal data.

“Out of 600,000 individuals who received the letters, about 58% of people verified their numbers,” Swartz said. “The remainder will now be able to get a license in December.”

Tied to this new policy change, Spitzer and Swartz also announced plans to implement new anti-fraud measures to increase security to prevent the new population of drivers from scamming the new policy.

“After a comprehensive review, DMV has developed changes that will increase the security of our license system by obtaining better and more verifiable information from applicants,” said Spitzer at a press conference on Friday.

Spitzer, who told the press that his policy change has a broad collection of support, said he was determined to bring people out of the shadows and give them real identity.

“It’s time we got rid of the underclass system that currently exists,” he said. “We’re changing our policy with respect to getting more people out of the shadows and into the system so people don’t have to hide anymore.”

Spitzer was quick to point out that the DMV should not be doing the work of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, now part of Homeland Security, “We will not permit the DMV to become a surrogate INS,” he said, referring to the former Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Spitzer, who said during last year’s gubernational campaign that he would permit undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses, promised lower insurance costs and safer roads as a result of this new policy change.

Referring to an AAA report called “Unlicensed to Kill,” which found that unlicensed drivers were almost five times more likely to be in a fatal crash than genuinely licensed drivers he said, “By bringing people out of the shadows, we are ensuring safer roads and lower insurance costs.”

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