NY Gov Eliot Spitzer is attempting to dig himself out of his drivers licenses-for-illegal aliens debacle. The Department of Homeland Security is helping him out. The plan itself strikes me as ill conceived.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer, as expected, and US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, has announced what is essentially a compromise in the governor’s mushrooming illegal alien drivers license debate.

Basically, the plan calls for a two, or really a three-track drivers license program in New York: one for illegal immigrants, another that will let citizens cross the Canadian border without a passport (that will soon be a requirement). Thirdly drivers can choose to get a federally-approved Real ID license that will let them board airplanes and enter federal buildings without presenting a passport or other proof of citizenship.

The second two, however, will carry a yet-to-be determined extra cost.

That’s a strange compromise. The first evidently means that NY drivers licenses will no longer be accepted as ID for boarding planes and the like. Spitzer has in effect destroyed NY drivers licenses as valid ID. That “extra cost” line means that US citizens will pay more for their Real ID drivers licences than illegal aliens will in the state of New York if they want to be able to use those licenses for ID purposes other than driving, as they routinely have up to now.

Having to pay more than illegal aliens so that you can maintain the same services you already had is going to make citizens happy? I don’t think so.

This is just like the DREAM Act, which would grant in-state tuition benefits to illegals, in effect giving them a cost break that citizens who live outside a given state can’t get. So once again, the government is making the up front costs of citizenship outweigh the up front costs of breaking the law. It’s immoral and very dumb. The latter may explain why Chertoff’s DHS is signing off on it. Maybe they’ll gin up a fake press conference to tell us all how great it is.

(via Ace)