Local State Sen. Backs Spitzer’s License Plan

State Sen. Eric Schneiderman, D-Upper Manhattan, voiced his support Thursday night for a controversial proposal by Gov. Eliot Spitzer to allow undocumented immigrants to obtain a New York state drivers license.

As part of their monthly forum on a current issue, the Broadway Democrats Club invited Schneiderman and Milan Bhatt from the New York Coalition on Immigration to speak at the synagogue Congregation Ramath Orah. In September, Spitzer unveiled his proposal to allow illegal immigrants to get a driver’s license by providing a valid and verifiable foreign passport, legislation that would reverse a four-year-old policy implemented under Republican Gov. George Pataki in 2003 that made United States citizenship or legal residency necessary in order to apply for a license.

Schneiderman opened the discussion by recognizing the widespread conflict over the issue, but argued that such disagreement should not prevent the proposal from going forward. “The fundamental fact is that there are 13 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. It is not a secret that they are here. They are a part of our communities and they are not going home. This is more of a civil rights issue than one of immigration,” he said.

Several audience members agreed with the senator, who noted that freedom of travel is a constitutional right, and therefore access to a driver’s license should be granted without restrictions. “It is going to take a long time to work through this issue. It is going to be the civil rights issue of the next 20 years,” he said.

Bhatt,of the Coalition on Immigration, agreed that fear has prevented discussion of immigration issues, noting “a fear of terrorism draws back to anti-immigration, which are baseless links, but extremely harmful to our community and any progress.” Bhatt described Spitzer’s plan as an issue of survival, noting that in areas where public transportation is not available, driving is essential to making a living. He called a license a “threshold for safety and security.”

Several audience members expressed concern that the licenses could actually pose a risk to immigrants, since they would have to reveal their undocumented status to state officials. Bhatt acknowledged that he was uncertain about this issue.

“Advocates are in a difficult position. We don’t know what the policy is going to look like. From a policy perspective there are things that could be done to improve this system, especially to do with confidentiality,” he said.

Gus Hagen-Dillon can be reached at news@columbiaspectator.com.