SPITZER'S SAD LICENSE LUNACY
By ABBY WISSE SCHACHTER

Spitzer: His DMV "Fix" will increase chaos.
September 27, 2007 -- THE Department of Motor Vehicles, says Gov. Spitzer, "is not the INS" - meaning he doesn't want the DMV doing the work of granting or verifying anyone's immigration status. (He was referring to the old Immigration and Naturalization Service, now the Citizenship and Immigration Services).

Funny thing is, Spitzer's "solution" to the problem is to have New York's DMV do pretty much the same thing.

Spitzer appointees at the DMV last Friday began making good on one of the gov's campaign promises - namely, to reverse the state's post-9/11 policy of not granting drivers licenses to illegal immigrants.

But Spitzer is trying to be both a national-security "hawk" as well as an immigration "dove": Illegals will still have to come up with six "points" of proof of identity, just like everyone else. He'll simply allow foreign documents to count (e.g., a foreign passport will be worth three points, against four points for a U.S. one).

Problem is, foreign papers are easier to fake: How is a DMV clerk in Poughkeepsie supposed to know what a birth certificate from Nigeria should look like?

Spitzer's answer: new anti-fraud measures at DMV - including document-verification technology, photograph-comparison tools and training staff with "expertise in foreign-sourced identity documents."

Huh? The governor thinks the old DMV staff wasn't sophisticated enough to vet visa or U.S. immigration papers, but now they're going to be high-tech examiners of exotic documents? How is the new arrangement not asking the DMV to do the work of federal immigration clerks?

Just as messy is whether the change (if it works) will bring the benefits Spitzer promises. He says the new rules will lead to safer roads because illegals will get a legal license, learn the rules of our roads and get insured. He even claims that all New Yorkers' insurance premiums could go down.

But how many illegals will get licenses? Pulling the necessary paperwork together still won't be easy. (Try getting a birth certificate from a town in the Domican Republic, say, when you're afraid to go back home for fear you can't return.)

The chief economist for the state Department of Insurance, Hampton Finer, has researched the issue for the government. He estimates that, "of the 650,000 uninsured motorists in New York today, two-thirds are likely to remain uninsured even with the change in the rules."

With 11 million drivers in the state, another 200,000 folks with insurance isn't likely to change rates much.

Keeping Spitzer's promise may also mean trouble with the federal government.

Eighteen of the 9/11 terrorists had driver's licenses or other forms of U.S. ID, which they used to rent cars and apartments, to sign up for flying lessons - and to board the planes. That's why the 9/11 Commission strongly recommended strict rules for acquiring a driver's license. (It's also why then-Gov. George Pataki toughened up New York's rules in 2002.)

Congress is still implementing the 9/11 Commission's recommendations - but it's already gotten to this one. Under the Real ID Act of 2005, all states must soon adopt rules for driver's licenses similar to New York's (pre-Spitzer) requirements. But now New York itself may be violating the federal law.

It's hard to see how Spitzer's verification plans can meet the national-security goals of the Real ID Act: After all, it's also easier to falsify foreign records - say, to bribe a clerk in Mexico to give you a legal ID in someone else's name.

Spitzer is right to criticize the federal government for America's incoherent and inefficient immigration system. But his rewriting of New York's DMV rules doesn't fix that - it just adds to the whole mess.

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