What’s more annoying to me is wcbstv’s partisan/utterly incompetent/moronically stupid journalists writing stories (and doing accompanying vids) that are so uninformative and make the story look different than they are.

NYS has allowed non-citizens to drive for a long time. It’s never been a requirement to get a driver’s license. And as Ernesto notes [September 23, 2007 at 10:15 AM] all sorts of non-citizens have been driving on the roads for years. When my wife (on temp res at the time) applied, there was a 6 point threshold for obtaining one. Various pieces of id, of varying value, were usable to achieve the 6 points. I’ve looked it up (pre-Spitzer’s is here.) The SSN was not part of the 6 point system but in addition to the achieving 6 points. Birth certificate was 0 points but proved age. Anyway, the system was to verify a couple things — being here lawfully and being a resident. My wife had little problem achieving 6 points; it was the SSN that was a nuisance. The problem is and has been the creeping requirement by just about everyone, to require an SSN to get anything — insurance, including Auto, a gas/electric, phone, cable account, bank account, supermarket credit account. Other things evolve to make the DMV requirements much tougher for legals and doesn’t mean a thing to illegals. There are a host of things to help in achieving 6 points, including a utility bill (1 pt). One could be here legally and achieve the 6 pts but the SSN (or a letter from the SSA) stopped them, especially if you are here as tourist, student, etc.

I’d have to compare the new to old point system to see what’s changed. US passports were in the point system (4 pts); foreign passports were in the point system, too, so long as they had proper entry stamps, visa classifications, etc (3 pts). Apparently wcbstv hasn’t bothered to see, (1) how badly the NYS DMV system has been gutted and, interestingly (2) if Spitzer is actually telling the truth that the system has allowed illegals to drive. Knowing how pols lie when their lips move and Eliot Spitzer in particular lying when his lips move, I wouldn’t put it past him to be exaggerating in what he has done, i.e., telling a minority group what they want to hear.

I’ve got the old point system in pdf if it disappears. I’ll check to see if the DMV website has the new criteria now. If so, we’ll see. If not, I’ll try to get them. Then we will see just what has been gutted.

In any event, just as important, I think, as the changes made, is wcbstv falsely stating NY had required proof of citizenship to obtain a license before the change, their babble about foreign passports was just that babble, and their inclusion of birth certificate was crap unless it now has points. Apparently, wcbstv is too lazy to even detail the changes that were made such that anyone can evaluate appropriately the changes made. The reports on wcbstv was more akin to ET coverage of a celebrity fight than it was providing news to use in appraising government actions.

In closing, I suggest that in the debate about illegals, we try to offer as much help to legals as possible. Being in the legal immigration system is a huge pain in the a$$, plus costly, and it shouldn’t be. If writing to pols on illegals, please also put in a good word for the legals and ask that their hurdles be simplified.

Dusty on September 23, 2007 at 1:28 PM

Question: Can illegals use these licenses to vote illegally?
[jeanie on September 23, 2007 at 3:43 PM]

You bringup a good issue. Driver’s licenses are not required to at the voting booth. It can be used for identification if your registration application has not been verified and approved by election time.

As for voting registration. The current Monroe County registration form requires no supplemental identification documents. Section 9 of the form covers this and instructions on the form for 9 are:

Box 9: If you have a current DMV number, you must provide that number. If you do not have a current DMV number, you must provide the last four digits of your social security number.

Section has three box options: DMV number, I don’t have DMV number, here’s the last four digits of my SSN or, lastly, I have neither.

It does have a sworn affadavit section at the end though. I’m sure they wouldn’t lie! Seriously, though, the behind-the-counter verification system is not described on the website, so who the heck knows. I’d say there is gaping hole in the system because of this and the NYS government will be allowing a huge chance for fraud if they don’t coordinate the systems.

But maybe Spitzer has already taken care of this. Maybe the licenses will be encoded so that police and elections board workers computer screens displays “ILLEGAL ALIEN” in red letters so that they know what to do.

Dusty on September 23, 2007 at 4:31 PM