City Immigrants Are Wary of Governor's Plan on IDs
BY MARUXA TENNENT - Special to the Sun
October 19, 2007

Far from the political debate on Governor Spitzer's plan to give undocumented immigrants valid driver's licenses, discussions are under way in New York City's immigrant-heavy neighborhoods about whether undocumented New Yorkers would even be willing to share their identities with the government.

"People here are scared," Abbas Razvi, 63, an owner of a grocery store in Midwood, Brooklyn, the heart of Little Pakistan, said. "People in this community have gotten stabbed and refused to report it. People here are going to have to think not twice about it, but 20 times. Policies can be good today, but turn bad tomorrow."

Mr. Spitzer's plan was launched in part to improve safety on the roads and to improve employment prospects for more than 1 million undocumented immigrants statewide. There is, however, fear among some immigrant groups that federal immigration authorities might get access to the Department of Motor Vehicles's records and use the information to deport them.

Immigrants who spoke to The New York Sun said some may not be willing to risk providing authorities with their personal information despite assurances from Mr. Spitzer and DMV officials that records would not be released to federal officials without a subpoena or court order.

"I'm thinking a lot of people won't go to get their licenses," the president of the Pakistani American Federation of New York, Asghar Choudri, said. His organization is based in Little Pakistan, one of the communities that has come under increased scrutiny and has seen deportations and arrests since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

"Some will come forward, but others will remain in the shadows," Mr. Choudri said.

A manager of a deli, Kamer Aledtha, 38, said most neighbors he has spoken with about Mr. Spitzer's plan have expressed ambivalence. "If you are illegal, you are going to be both happy and worried," he said.

In Chinatown, the fear of federal authorities could be strong enough to deter many immigrants from heading to the nearest DMV and signing up for a road test.

"I've been receiving a lot of calls in the past weeks from people who are recent immigrants," a representative of an Asian immigrant umbrella group, Eddie Chiu, said. "They say they are very happy with this new program, but they are not coming here today because they are very scared." The group, the Lin Sing Association, hosted officials from the governor's office at its Chinatown headquarters yesterday to answer questions about the plan.

"A few days ago the press said that most people in the state are against this program, so now people think they don't stand a chance. People don't understand," Mr. Chiu, 60, said.

Several dozen residents filed in to yesterday's meeting, some with questions about the complex point system needed to qualify for a license, some seemingly in disbelief. Holding her expired license with the words "Temporary Visitor" stamped in red across the top, Danxieng Luo asked if she would indeed be eligible to renew it soon. "They said everything is okay," she said.

Others embraced the idea of Mr. Spitzer's plan, under the hope that to allow immigrants to obtain a driver's license by presenting a valid passport rather than a Social Security number will bring more work prospects and a newfound ease in fulfilling everyday obligations.

"This is what we have been fighting for," the executive director of the Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights, Raquel Batista, said.

When Joel Magallan, the executive director of Tepeyac, a Mexican immigrant rights nonprofit, asked undocumented students who would want to obtain a driver's license when Mr. Spitzer's plan is implemented, hands immediately went up.

One of the students, Florencio Alonso, a pizza maker with two young daughters, said he would opt-in and eventually buy a second-hand car.

"When the opportunity comes, I will take it. It is a very good decision," Mr. Alonso, 34, said. "I will be able to get out of the city more easily. In the summer, I would like to take my family to Bear Mountain State Park, or even to the Great Lakes."

Mr. Alonso said he isn't worried about giving up his information, reasoning that it's already available through his tax documents and bank records.

"There isn't fear. There is joy and happiness that people are going to get licenses. Many immigrants have even begun saving more and sending less money home because they want to buy a car," Mr. Magallan said.

"For the taxi drivers and the people who distributed construction material or clothing, and in the past years have had to find other jobs because they didn't have a Social Security number, this is great news," he added.

Republicans have vowed to block the governor's plan, saying it could make it easier for potential terrorists to obtain legal documentation and that it will make New York State a haven for illegal immigrants.

Many immigrants say their sights are already set far beyond gaining legal access to New York's roads.

"Instead of giving driver's licenses, they should give green cards to people. That is what people are interested in," a part-time car insurer, Hashim Choudhry, 59, said.

http://www.nysun.com/article/64867