Eliot Spitzer drivers license controversy

Applicants for driver's licenses would not be required to prove legal immigration status and would be allowed to present a foreign passport as identification.

[4] Applicants for driver's licenses would not be required to prove legal immigration status and would be allowed to present a foreign passport as identification.

[5] Critics charged that the plan would open the door for illegal aliens to obtain official identification and compromise security improvements made since September 11, 2001.

His critics included Democratic presidential candidate Senator Christopher Dodd, who denounced the proposal at a debate held on October 30.

She was elected to serve the remaining three years of the term of her predecessor, state Motor Vehicles Commissioner David Swarts, after vocally breaking with Spitzer.

[14] While opposition to the driver's license proposal emerged from both political parties, Spitzer claimed his opponents were aligned with the "rabid right.

[20] On November 14, the day following the release of the Siena College poll, Governor Spitzer announced he would withdraw the plan to issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, acknowledging that it would never be implemented.