dck
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作者：dck 在 罕见奇谈 发贴, 来自 http://www.hjclub.org
县办事员公然抗拒纽约州长行政命令！拒绝发放非法移民驾照
County clerks rebel over driver's licenses for illegal immigrants
Protest sets the stage for legal confrontation with Spitzer
By Tom Precious - NEWS ALBANY BUREAU
Updated: 10/05/07 7:51 AM
ALBANY — County clerks across New York State revolted Thursday against Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer’s new policy that will let illegal immigrants obtain driver’s licenses, with at least a dozen counties saying they would refuse to implement the controversial program.
Setting up a major legal confrontation, the clerks from 13 counties — including Genesee, Allegany and Monroe — called Spitzer’s policy a threat to the state’s security that was rushed into without the input from legislators, law enforcement and those on the front lines who issue the licenses.
“This is a matter of safety and security for New Yorkers and Americans,” said Saratoga County Clerk Kathleen Marchione, president of the statewide association of clerks, who led the rebellion against Spitzer.
Niagara County Clerk Wayne F. Jagow backed the resolution criticizing Spitzer’s program, while Erie County Clerk Kathy Hochul, a Spitzer appointee, abstained; both counties have said they will, however, enforce the new policy when it begins in December. Neither attended the Albany meeting.
It was a case of unprecedented defiance of a governor’s executive order by elected officials who legally act as agents of the state in running local motor vehicle offices. It came moments after the end of a combative session between the county clerks and Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner David J. Swarts, who heard official after official rebuke the program and urge a delay in implementing it.
Local officials said they expect the number of clerks bucking Spitzer, and legal threats by the administration, to rise. In an emergency meeting in Albany on Thursday, the clerks’ association voted overwhelmingly to condemn the Spitzer license program, which could see more than 100,000 undocumented immigrants obtain driver’s licenses.
Spitzer dismissed the clerks’ criticism and said their resolution will make “our state less secure and our roads less safe.”
The clerks said they were allowed no advance input and were surprised by the governor’s policy change. It ends a rule that license applicants produce a Social Security number or document showing they are ineligible for the number.
The new policy, giving licenses to illegal immigrants with valid foreign passports, will replace a stricter requirement enacted in the months after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
“I implore you: Give this a chance,” Swarts, who had been the Erie County clerk for two decades before taking the DMV post this year, told a roomful of county officials at an Albany hotel.
But they were having none of it, and some noted that the outspoken Swarts likely would have been helping to lead their efforts if he had not been appointed DMV commissioner by Spitzer.
“There is no reason this has to go through so rapidly,” said Genesee County Clerk Don Read. He criticized Spitzer for having “circumvented” the State Legislature and others in not seeking consent or advice about a policy that Swarts himself acknowledged is a “monumental” change for the state. Read said that unless his county lawyers advised otherwise, he will not implement the policy.
The intensifying battle over the Spitzer plan comes as a poll by Zogby International found that 58 percent of likely voters statewide — and 65 percent upstate — oppose relaxing the licensing standards. Sixty-one percent of women and 58 percent of men do not favor the policy, the poll found, while 42 percent of Democrats and 74 percent of Republicans oppose it.
Joining the fray Thursday were the state’s Catholic bishops, who sided with Spitzer, unions and immigration groups in pushing the policy change. Others, including law enforcement, are cautiously watching the developments.
“The initial reaction is it doesn’t look like good policy, but we’re open to listening to the arguments,” said Peter R. Kehoe, executive director of a statewide association of county sheriffs, whose members are scheduled to meet on the issue Oct. 17 in Albany.
The state runs DMV offices on Long Island, New York City and Westchester, Albany and Onondaga counties. In the other counties, the county clerks are the DMV agents.
The clerks’ resolution condemning the Spitzer policy fell largely along partisan lines. Of the 29 clerks backing it, only one is a Democrat. Three Democrats opposed it, and three abstained.
In their meeting with Swarts, the clerks rejected Spitzer’s contention that the policy promotes safer roads by encouraging illegal immigrants to get licenses and insurance policies.
Spitzer says new technologies coming with the policy will make New York licenses more secure. Swarts announced that Spitzer will propose legislation to require that anyone getting a license in New York be a resident of the state.
But clerks said such aspects of the program already should be in place, and they questioned why the Spitzer administration has not figured out how it will prove residency for a license. But, mostly, it was a debate over security in a state where terrorism has hit home.
Over and over again, Swarts urged the clerks to avoid a debate over the policy and to focus on implementing it. “The policy is made. The governor is not going to backtrack on that policy,” Swarts told them.
Despite the criticism, the Spitzer administration is moving quickly to start the program, and Swarts said he heard nothing from the clerks that will delay the policy.
Swarts said the change will require the hiring of 20 additional driving test workers, the installation of hundreds of new machines to process applications with new security procedures, and longer office hours.
Swarts, who railed against the “hysteria” and false information he said was created following the policy change, said the state is concerned about New York becoming “a magnet” for illegal aliens coming from other states trying to get the licenses. That, he said, is one of the reasons for a proposed new residency requirement and tougher anti-fraud techniques.
The county clerks believe they will be violating federal laws by knowingly providing government identification to illegal aliens. Several said the state should let counties opt out of the program. They said they also are being asked by Albany to serve as immigration officers in checking the validity of passports, something they are not qualified to do.
The state warned the clerks that they could face a lawsuit and perhaps lose DMV revenues if they don’t accept the policy.
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作者：dck 在 罕见奇谈 发贴, 来自 http://www.hjclub.org |
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县办事员公然抗拒纽约州长行政命令！拒绝发放非法移民驾照
