ROCHESTER - The legislature in Monroe County - in defiance of Gov. Eliot Spitzer - has ordered its county clerk to require anyone seeking a driver's license to provide a valid Social Security number.
It is the most confrontational action so far by county officials opposed to Spitzer's executive order allowing illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses.
The Democratic governor countered Wednesday that county clerks have no choice but to follow his directive - a view that Monroe County may now be helping force toward court.
“I hate to say it - the clerks have to enforce it,” Spitzer said during a visit to Buffalo. “The clerks who issue driver's licenses are agents of the state. They do not make state law on this. State government does.”
At least a half-dozen legislatures in Republican-dominated counties in upstate New York have passed resolutions in support of their clerks' refusals to follow the new policy despite state laws obligating them to do so.
The Monroe County Legislature went a step further Tuesday night when it voted by a 20-9 margin to order Clerk Cheryl Dinolfo to continue requiring Social Security identification for driver's licenses. Dinolfo already opposes the policy, which is scheduled to take effect in December.
A majority of clerks, all but one of them Republicans, denounced the governor's policy at a special meeting last Thursday of the New York State Association of County Clerks.
“I believe that providing one of the strongest forms of documentation that we have in the United States is aiding and abetting an illegal immigrant,” Saratoga County Clerk Kathleen Marchione, the association's president, said in a telephone interview.
“They're here unlawfully, they're working unlawfully and documenting illegal immigrants I don't believe is the job of (the Department of) Motor Vehicles.”
Spitzer last month reversed a 2002 executive order by his predecessor, Gov. George Pataki, that required people seeking a license to provide a Social Security number. The policy change will allow illegal immigrants who have valid foreign passports to obtain a driver's license. Allowing undocumented immigrants to get licenses will improve public security by creating records for more immigrants, Spitzer argued.
The Democratic governor countered Wednesday that county clerks have no choice but to follow his directive - a view that Monroe County may now be helping force toward court.
“I hate to say it - the clerks have to enforce it,” Spitzer said during a visit to Buffalo. “The clerks who issue driver's licenses are agents of the state. They do not make state law on this. State government does.”
At least a half-dozen legislatures in Republican-dominated counties in upstate New York have passed resolutions in support of their clerks' refusals to follow the new policy despite state laws obligating them to do so.
The Monroe County Legislature went a step further Tuesday night when it voted by a 20-9 margin to order Clerk Cheryl Dinolfo to continue requiring Social Security identification for driver's licenses. Dinolfo already opposes the policy, which is scheduled to take effect in December.
A majority of clerks, all but one of them Republicans, denounced the governor's policy at a special meeting last Thursday of the New York State Association of County Clerks.
“I believe that providing one of the strongest forms of documentation that we have in the United States is aiding and abetting an illegal immigrant,” Saratoga County Clerk Kathleen Marchione, the association's president, said in a telephone interview.
“They're here unlawfully, they're working unlawfully and documenting illegal immigrants I don't believe is the job of (the Department of) Motor Vehicles.”
Spitzer last month reversed a 2002 executive order by his predecessor, Gov. George Pataki, that required people seeking a license to provide a Social Security number. The policy change will allow illegal immigrants who have valid foreign passports to obtain a driver's license. Allowing undocumented immigrants to get licenses will improve public security by creating records for more immigrants, Spitzer argued.
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raywa9 wrote on Oct 12, 2007 9:38 AM: