Thread: Hearts Versus Minds on Spitzer’s Driver’s License Plan

Hearts Versus Minds on Spitzer’s Driver’s License Plan

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com

November 2, 2007, 4:23 pm
Hearts Versus Minds on Spitzer’s Driver’s License Plan
By Nicholas Confessore


Today comes another salvo in Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s efforts to build support for his new plan to give driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants while also offering licenses that will comply with new federal security rules under the Real I.D. Act. And it illustrates the basic issue for Mr. Spitzer as he seeks to cope with what appears to be massive public resistance to the new policy.
The announcement this morning was that Clark Kent Ervin, the former inspector-general for the Department of Homeland Security, is endorsing Mr. Spitzer’s proposal in full — not just the high-security licenses that will go to legal immigrants and citizens, but also the standard, less-expensive licenses that will be available to illegal immigrants as well as others.
But Mr. Ervin’s announcement is illustrative of the strategy Mr. Spitzer has adopted. His opponents, chiefly Republican lawmakers, have fanned the flames of public outrage by postulating every conceivable disastrous scenario they can think of that might result from allowing illegal immigrants to get licenses — massive voter fraud by illegal aliens, terrorists buying weapons and staging a 9/11-style attack. Mr. Spitzer has responded with a series of public endorsements of the plan by experts on terrorism and security, and by trying to bat down his opponents’ scenarios of doom.
Some of the experts have included Slade Gorton, a former Republican senator and member of the 9/11 Commission, former White House counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke, and United States homeland security secretary Michael Chertoff, as well as current Los Angeles police chief William Bratton.
Notably, Mr. Gorton and Mr. Chertoff pointedly disassociated themselves from the controversial portion of the plan, giving licenses to illegal immigrants. But both praised the overall plan as a net plus for national security, as have Mr. Ervin, Mr. Clarke, and others.
Mr. Spitzer’s goal, it appears, is to neutralize what he considers unfounded worries over security, and re-orient the discussion around the practical reality of illegal immigration and how to make the best of it. But even there, he faces a quandry. Polling and anecdotal evidence suggests that for a lot of people, the issue is simple: Putting aside all the substantive arguments, they just don’t think, on a gut level, that illegal immigrants should get official documents, period.
If that’s truly the case, than all the experts, all the arguments, and all the television appearances in the world won’t change how people feel.

Originally Posted by GREGAGREATAMERICAN

Hearts Versus Minds on Spitzer’s Driver’s License Plan

HHmmm...my heart says MY kids need a future to look forward to

Oddly enough, my mind says the same darn thing!