KirstenMortensen.com

In the past week or so, the reason Spitzer has given for his licenses-for-illegals plan is that it will improve safety.

But before he realized he’d run into a political buzzsaw, his message wasn’t honed to quote that same point.

He’s on record as claiming his policy is “morally” and “ethically” right.

His early October statements suggest he wants to make our state a nicer place for illegal immigrants to live:

I want people who are driving to have a license so that I know who they are, I don’t want them to be forced into a context where they’re getting forged licenses, forged social security numbers, living in an underground economy in the shadows.

He’s quoted as saying he wants to make it easier for illegal immigrants to participate in the NYS economy.

When he spoke to the NYS Democratic Committee on October 1, he said, “The immigrant community of New York State deserves to have the opportunity to have drivers licenses.”

Well, okay. But guess what. It’s against federal law to “encourage” illegal aliens to reside in the United States. Under Sec. 274 of 8 U.S.C. 13240 of the Federal Immigration and Nationality Act, anyone who

encourages or induces an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such coming to, entry, or residence is or will be in violation of law

is subject to fines and/or imprisonment of up to 10 years.

I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to suggest that making it easier for illegals to live and do business in New York encourages them to stay.

That law, of course, was devised to criminalize the actions of private citizens — including people whose transgressions seem rather petty compared to what Eliot’s doing. Family members who sneak relatives into the country, employers who hire illegals.

Apparently Spitzer doesn’t have to follow the same laws the rest of us do. He can, in a single gesture, encourage a million illegal aliens to live here without having to fear the next day’s knock on the door.

Technorati Tags: Eliot Spitzer, drivers licenses

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 16th, 2007 at 11:55 am and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.