Jeff Klein on Spitzer Driver's License Proposal: Maybe
Here’s a photo of state Senators Malcolm Smith and Jeff Klein with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during their trip to DC yesterday.
Earlier, I asked Klein, a Democrat in the Bronx, about Eliot Spitzer’s plan to allow illegal immigrants to obtain a state driver’s license. He told me, “I think it is only useful if it is used as a means to create a database of people we know nothing about. And if that’s not the case, I wouldn’t be in favor of it.”
Here's more from Klein:
"Well, I haven’t really decided which way or the other. I read through the commissioner of Motor Vehicles proposal. I think it all is contingent on this technology and whether or not this technology that is supposed to be utilized by the department of motor vehicles can effectively verify the validity of the passport and make sure that one person doesn’t get more than one driver’s license.
“I understand the opportunity he’s trying to create of having over one million illegal immigrants have, like, a database, with their name, their picture, address and everything else. The DMV database is something that can be used very effectively by law enforcement. But I think there is a big if because of this technology. And I want to make sure it really is effective and can work.
“Right now, I’m a little bit doubtful because you have an agency, the DMV, that can’t prevent people from waiting on line for two hours to renew their licenses, and whether or not their going to have this state of the art technology being able to track fraud.”
- Poll
- Obama (D)
- McCain(R)
- Spread
- RCP Average
- 47.0
- 43.8
- Obama +3.2
- Candidate
- Favorable
- Unfavorable
- Spread
- Obama
- 56.4
- 35.2
- +21.2
- McCain
- 54.4
- 37.0
- +17.4
Is is normal for a Deputy Leader to publicly disagree with his leader this often?
short answer? no.
Jeff baby... what's the problem with either supporting this proposal or opposing it? Need to count how many illegal aliens could possibly vote in your Senate District before taking a position? Your acting quite presidential...following in the footsteps of your mentors Clinton and Schumer. You're doing a hellava job big guy.
so, wait....let me get this straight. Illegal aliens are going to get driver's licenses so we can establish a database of...illegal aliens? Doesn't that defeat the desire of illegal aliens to stay below the radar screen? A logical deduction would be that illegals will not get driver's licenses so no one can track them down.
So, now the question is who will get driver's licenses without a social security card? My guess is terrorists and criminals who know they can't be tracked with the phoney information they give.
I think Gov. Spitzer is acting reasonably and pragmatically. It isn't like we are somehow going to magically do away with our 1 million illegal immigrants just because we will not give them a legal driver's license...
Currently, there are many illegal residents who drive without a license or go out of state to get one. Both scenarios are bad for law abiding New Yorkers.
Why cut off our nose to spite our face? Because of a minority of ignorant, quasi-racist people that have problems with giving illegals anything because of their own personal feelings??
Not good enough of a reason for me!