Exclusive: NY’s Gov. Spitzer OKs Driver’s Licenses to Illegals: Is He Breaking the Law?

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/ho ... id=1371344
Author: Mike Cutler
Source: The Family Security Foundation, Inc.
Date: September 24, 2007



In a stunning and reckless decision, NY’s Governor Spitzer announced he will allow illegal aliens to obtain New York State driver’s licenses. FSM Contributing Editor Mike Cutler explains how this national security nightmare puts the rights of illegals before the lives of all Americans. Shame on Spitzer!

NY’s Gov. Spitzer OKs Driver’s Licenses to Illegals: Is He Breaking the Law?
By Mike Cutler

Two days ago, I received a phone call from an MSNBC producer who asked if I could appear on his program to discuss the outrageous decision by several boards of education to teach the Mexican curriculum to students in their schools. Needless to say, I was eager to provide my perspectives on this matter.

When I arrived at the television studio, I was asked to participate in an additional debate about another unbelievable situation: the fact that the governor of New York State, Elliot Spitzer, announced that he intended to provide driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. Needless to say, I was happy to weigh in on this situation as well.

By the time I returned home, my wife informed me that Stephen Dinan of the Washington Times had just called to seek my view on Governor Spitzer's statement. The subject obviously is a hot one.

The immigration laws of our nation state that anyone who induces aliens to enter our country illegally, or reside in our country in violation of law, or conspire to do so, are violating our laws. The reason for this is patently clear: we cannot control illegal immigration purely at our borders; we must also create an inhospitable environment for illegals who succeed in entering the United States and making their way to the interior of the country.

Section 1324 of the Immigration and Nationality Act is quite straightforward on this issue. I have copied this particular statute below:


U.S. Code as of: 01/03/05

Section 1324. Bringing in and harboring certain aliens

(a) Criminal penalties
(1)(A) Any person who -
(i) knowing that a person is an alien, brings to or attempts to
bring to the United States in any manner whatsoever such person
at a place other than a designated port of entry or place other
than as designated by the Commissioner, regardless of whether
such alien has received prior official authorization to come to,
enter, or reside in the United States and regardless of any
future official action which may be taken with respect to such
alien;
(ii) knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien
has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in
violation of law, transports, or moves or attempts to transport
or move such alien within the United States by means of
transportation or otherwise, in furtherance of such violation of
law;
(iii) knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an
alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in
violation of law, conceals, harbors, or shields from detection,
or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, such
alien in any place, including any building or any means of
transportation;
(iv) encourages or induces an alien to come to, enter, or
reside in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of
the fact that such coming to, entry, or residence is or will be
in violation of law; or
(v)(I) engages in any conspiracy to commit any of the preceding
acts, or
(II) aids or abets the commission of any of the preceding acts,
shall be punished as provided in subparagraph (B).

(B) A person who violates subparagraph (A) shall, for each alien
in respect to whom such a violation occurs -
(i) in the case of a violation of subparagraph (A)(i) or (v)(I)
or in the case of a violation of subparagraph (A)(ii), (iii), or
(iv) in which the offense was done for the purpose of commercial
advantage or private financial gain, be fined under title 18,
imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both;
(ii) in the case of a violation of subparagraph (A)(ii), (iii),
(iv), or (v)(II), be fined under title 18, imprisoned not more
than 5 years, or both;
(iii) in the case of a violation of subparagraph (A)(i), (ii),
(iii), (iv), or (v) during and in relation to which the person
causes serious bodily injury (as defined in section 1365 of title
1 to, or places in jeopardy the life of, any person, be fined
under title 18, imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both; and
(iv) in the case of a violation of subparagraph (A)(i), (ii),
(iii), (iv), or (v) resulting in the death of any person, be
punished by death or imprisoned for any term of years or for
life, fined under title 18, or both.


It’s flabbergasting that the Governor, who had been the Attorney General of the State of New York, would not understand the nature of his statement and the fact that providing driver's licenses to illegal aliens offers clear incentives for aliens to enter our country in violation of law, and also to stay in the United States illegally and to secure illegal employment. While I am not an attorney, it seems apparent that the Governor of New York is breaking our immigration law with this decision.

Illegal aliens circumvent our border controls to enter the U.S. The CBP (Customs and Border Protection) inspector is not to be confused with a toll collector at a bridge or toll road. When an alien enters the United States without being inspected, he prevents those federal law enforcement officers from having the opportunity to record his entry. The government, through those inspectors, is therefore unable to screen the alien entrant who might be excludable for a number of reasons established by our nation's immigration laws.

The grounds for denying an alien entry into our country are intended to safeguard our nation and our people. This process has never been more important than it is today as our nation wages a war against terrorists, violent gangs and drug trafficking organizations.

Insofar as excluding aliens is concerned, the greatest worry revolves around aliens who have criminal histories and may actually be the subjects of outstanding criminal warrants. Aliens may be barred from entry if they suffer from mental illness, if they have dangerous communicable diseases, if they belong to terrorist or criminal organizations, if they have been previously deported from the United States (often because they have criminal backgrounds in our own country), if they attempt to enter the United States with fraudulent documents designed to conceal their true identities and if they appear to be abandoning their home countries, plan to work illegally in the United States or are likely to become public charges.

It is also important to note that many illegal aliens, especially those who seek to enter our country surreptitiously, may be fugitives from justice in their own countries or in other "third countries".

Another important issue to consider is that while the United States, unlike many other countries, does not issue a national identity card, driver's licenses do serve as de facto national identity cards. In requiring a driver's license to determine the true identity of the bearer, the person examining the license is placing total faith in the integrity of the system by which driver's licenses are issued. It is difficult enough for officials to determine the authenticity of birth certificates issued by the numerous municipalities across the United States, but when you consider the lack of integrity of the bureaucracies of other countries, you quickly realize just how daunting this task of determining the authenticity of these documents is!

A driver's license does more than permit a person to drive a vehicle. It provides the bearer with access to government buildings, with access to office buildings and to television studios. A driver's license is necessary if you wish to board a train or an airliner. A driver's license also may help the bearer to secure employment in the United States and to buy firearms.

It is especially disturbing that the governor of the State that suffered the most casualties and destruction as a direct result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, would so blithely ignore the lessons of those attacks as articulated in the 9/11 Commission Report on the Terrorist Attacks and in the 9/11 Commission Staff Report on the Terrorist Attacks of 9/11. Those two reports can be found at the following links below:


The 9/11 Commission Report on the Terrorist Attacks:
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/911/pdf/fullreport.pdf

The 9/11 Commission Staff Report on Terrorist Travel:
http://www.9-11commission.gov/staff_sta ... ograph.pdf

These reports make it clear that the 19 terrorists used some 364 aliases including variations and alterations of various names and dates of birth. They used a variety of identity documents in order to embed themselves in our country and hide in plain sight among us.

A final thought. As an old-timer told me when I first began my career with the INS, "When a cop is chasing a bad guy, the cop is running for his paycheck; the bad guy may well be running for his life!" Illegal aliens, especially criminal aliens and terrorists, pay attention to where they are more likely to embed themselves in communities and hide in plain sight. When a community creates a so-called "Sanctuary" for illegal aliens, those communities and cities become magnets for illegal aliens and for criminal aliens. They know that they are far less likely to be identified as being illegally present while there. When a state makes it clear that illegal aliens are welcome to set up shop in that state and easily be able to obtain a driver's license, then that state similarly becomes a magnet for illegal aliens, criminal aliens and especially aliens involved in terrorist activities.

We already have some pretty solid evidence that New York attracts terrorists. There have been several terrorist attacks committed in New York during the past couple of decades including the killing of Rabbi Meir David Kahane in midtown Manhattan, the fatal shooting incident involving a van transporting yeshiva students on the Brooklyn Bridge, the first bombing attack on the World Trade Center on February 26, 1993, 9/11, and other terrorist attacks including a plan to blow up a subway station in New York, and a plan, also thwarted, to blow up the fuel lines at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Why would Governor Spitzer want to make it that much easier for illegal aliens and potential criminals and terrorists to obtain identity documents that would be of tremendous assistance to such human vermin who have already provided ample evidence that New York is clearly in their sights?

I suspect he is smart enough to know all that I have articulated in this commentary. What then might his motivation be? What is Governor Spitzer thinking?

Whose side is Governor Spitzer on?

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FamilySecurityMatters.org contributing editor Michael Cutler is a Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and a well-respected authority on immigration and border security issues.
read full author bio here