November 13, 2007

Eliot Spitzer drops driver's licenses for illegal aliens (Hillary updates position)

Presumably not wanting to join Hillary's List, New York governor Eliot Spitzer will announce tomorrow that he's shelving his unpopular plan to give driver's licenses to illegal aliens (link):

The governor's office signaled to New York lawmakers Tuesday that the morning of the meeting, he will say he is shelving the plan and that immigration is a federal issue to be handled by Washington, according to congressional aides who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because no formal announcement had been made.

I'd say it worked out quite well: he not only made immigration a factor in the presidential race, he damaged both Hillary Clinton's chances and his political career.

UPDATE: Fire up your Clintonian Parsing Machine! Per this she's now come out against the licenses, when it seemed to me that she was for them despite her claims to the contrary. From her statement:

"I support Governor Spitzer's decision today to withdraw his proposal... As president, I will not support driver's licenses for undocumented people and will press for comprehensive immigration reform that deals with all of the issues around illegal immigration including border security and fixing our broken system."

Of course, as pointed out before, there will be many illegal aliens not covered under "reform" as well as many additional people who will come here illegally, leading to a continuation of the issue of unlicensed drivers. And, while she might not support giving illegal aliens driver's licenses herself, I wonder whether her statement would allow her to support governors who want to give them licenses. Or, whether she'd change her mind should "reform" fail yet again.

Posted to Immigration_dls at November 13, 2007 06:53 PM