OK, something freaky just happened in New York. Gov. Eliot Spitzer just sold out to critics of his plan to give all New York residents access to driver’s licenses, regardless of their immigration status. He caved in to the pressure, turned the idea into a complicated multiple-choice ordeal and is still calling it a major victory. Talk about spinning the facts.

Anyone who has followed my columns through the years knows that I am an advocate of granting driver’s licenses to anyone who fulfills the driving requirements in this country. Immigration status does not need to be one of them. I believe it is a bad idea to have someone driving on our streets and highways who has neither passed a test nor has automobile insurance.

So, as you can imagine, I was ecstatic when I found out that Spitzer agreed with that theory and had the courage to go through with his proposal to make driver’s licenses available to undocumented immigrants in New York, in spite of the mounting opposition. But then politics got in the way.

Spitzer announced that he had reached an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security to create what he called the “safest system in the country.” It basically consists of giving drivers a choice of applying for one of three different types of licenses.

There would be the so-called REAL ID, which is the one the federal government is planning on phasing in nationally by 2013. It is designed to deter potential terrorists and could be used as an official form of identification and for domestic travel.

The second license would be an enhanced version that would serve as a passport, and in addition to domestic travel it could be used to cross the Canadian border. The third would be a basic license for driving purposes only and would be clearly marked as not valid as a federal ID.

Now, why would someone who is in the country illegally apply for a driver’s license, knowing that it could turn him or her into a target of immigration officials or local authorities? Think of the choices. If you get stopped for a traffic violation and you don’t have a license, you get a ticket. But if you hand over a license that screams out “ILLEGAL” to an officer, then you get arrested and deported.

In defending his new deal, Spitzer says this license would not be specifically for undocumented immigrants. Among the advantages, he claims, is that it would be cheaper than the other two; therefore, U.S. citizens who want to save money and do not plan to travel domestically also could apply for it.

He also denies that potential terrorists could have access to them, as some of his critics say, since the applicant would have to provide a valid passport and four other current forms of ID. Each document would be examined by highly trained experts in a new, enhanced identification verification unit, then analyzed by state-of-the-art authentication technology and finally subjected to biometric verification in order to prevent fraud. Keep in mind that this is for the cheapest license of them all. So, who is going to pay for all that training and technology?

And what about this traveling to Canada thing? Spitzer claims the enhanced license is critical to New York’s economy because new passport requirements under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative would hurt cross-border trade. What about cross-border trade with Mexico? Would this open the door for other border states to adopt a super-duper-enhanced license that allows their residents to cross the border to Mexico for commercial purposes? And what if a New Yorker wanted to go to Mexico -- would he or she need a passport to go to Mexico but only his or her license to go to Canada?

I’m still trying to figure out what Spitzer accomplished with this deal. It does nothing to appease his critics, who under no circumstances want to see undocumented immigrants get a driver’s license, and it ends up alienating supporters of his original proposal, who are opposed to a two-tier system. Now he has even more opposition from those who believe it would add so much bureaucracy that it could eventually bankrupt the state. I’m sure we haven’t heard the end of this one.

***
(Maria Elena Salinas is the author of “I AM MY FATHER’S DAUGHTER: LIVING A LIFE WITHOUT SECRETS.” Reach her at www.mariaesalinas.com)
© 2007 by Maria Elena Salinas
Distributed by King Features Syndicate