Thread: Undocumented on LI wary of applying for license

Undocumented on LI wary of applying for license
BY DAVE MARCUS AND CAROL EISENBERG


October 30, 2007

Amid the furor over whether to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, many on Long Island say they're afraid to apply because they don't want to set themselves up for deportation.

At least some of those fears may be valid. State and federal officials say law enforcement agencies will continue to have access to the license database, but in the future it will include not only name and address, but what type of license a driver has and the identification used to get it.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff held open the possibility on Saturday that immigration agents may use that information.

"I'm going to assume that law enforcement authorities, whether federal, state or local, will do their job and investigate what has to be investigated and use all the tools available to them," Chertoff said.

State officials discounted such concerns, however, saying no information about immigration status would be in the database. They noted that many legal residents will have the same license as those who are undocumented because that will be the cheapest among the three license options and available to everyone.

But the talk in the immigrant community was skeptical. As groups of Central American immigrants gathered in Huntington Station yesterday, they talked about the driver's licenses they desperately want but probably won't seek.

"What good is a license that identifies you as someone who is in the country illegally?" said Valentin, 47, a construction worker from Honduras who said he has been in the United States for six years. "I can't risk going in and applying for something like that."

Like others interviewed, he asked that his last name be withheld because he has sensed an increasingly hostile, anti-immigration climate on Long Island in the past year or so.

Valentin said he has been trying to save money for his four daughters back home, but he finds it increasingly difficult because he can't find a way to get to job sites.

"I don't trust this idea about having different classes of driver's licenses," said Miguel, 45, a landscaper and laborer from El Salvador. "What are they going to do with all the information they get about us?"

He and others who huddled in the late-afternoon sunlight on Depot Road and Fairground Avenue in Huntington Station said they are reluctant to apply for any license that could be used to identify them as illegal residents. For the past month, many said, they had guarded optimism about the governor's plan. But they abandoned hope this weekend when they heard about the latest twist.

"In the end, I don't think they'll even let us get licenses," said Ramon, 23, also from El Salvador.

Activists urged immigrants to say no to what amounts to a new ID card. Creating the card "will enable the government to look into the wallets and pocketbooks of New Yorkers," said Seth Muraskin, executive director of the Suffolk chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

Guillermo Chacon of the Salvadoran American National Network, a Huntington resident, said he would advise illegal immigrants to wait and see.

"I'd prefer to have nothing and feel safer," he said. "It doesn't help when ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] has been doing all these raids. How safe would you feel?"

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/ny-li ... 5568.story

I hope the hope scheme backfires and spits in spitzer's eye!

It has to backfire. The people are not going to stand for Spitzer aiding and abetting illegals. Chertoff can't stop a governor from issuing an executive order, but certainly must enforce law after it's done. Having a NY issued drivers license doesn't trump federal law. Each illegal alien will be guilty of transporting illegal aliens if they drive or carry an illegal alien as passenger. That's a felony.

Like others interviewed, he asked that his last name be withheld because he has sensed an increasingly hostile, anti-immigration climate on Long Island in the past year or so.

Good for Long Islanders. If they feel welcome they'll never leave. Go home to your four daughters, that us tax paying fools are helping to support.

I am totally against any Id for Criminal immigrants.
We can give them a number on a shirt.
Some pink long john till the bus comes
We can give them food and drink and a bed.
Any money they have becomes the states and should be redistributed to the people it was stolen from !!!