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Senate To Review Spitzer License Plan

Albany, NY (WBEN) - The New York State Senate begins hearings this morning on Governor Eliot Spitzer’s controversial plan to provide drivers licenses to illegal aliens at a time when a small change in the way they are issued has already been put in place without fanfare.

In recent weeks, the NYS Dept. of Motor Vehicles has stopped stamping “temporary visitor” on the driver’s license of legal non-citizens, according to Assembly Minority Leader Jim Tedisco, a Republican who threatens to sue the governor to stop the license issuance plan.

The state has also stopped putting a visa expiration date on the temporary vistor licenses. Tedisco says.

The previously announced Spitzer plan to start issuing driver’s licenses to illegal aliens beginning in December meanwhile goes before a NY Senate committee Monday.

Former DMV commissioner Raymond Martinez is expected to testify, labelling the plan a complete surrender of security issues. Spitzer’s current DMV Commissioner, David Swarts, the former longtime-Erie County Clerk is also expected to testify in favor of the measure, and in the face of growing criticism.

“People say this is a retreat from those security measures we enacted,” Martinez said in The New York Post. “I would disagree. It’s a complete surrender that I believe makes New York and the United States less secure.”

Several Republican lawmakers and some county clerks have spoken out against proposal, saying it puts the safety of residents at risk, and would enhance terrorist activity.

But the Governor has said the licenses would actually help fight crime and prevent terrorism, by creating records for immigrants.

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