Illegal Immigrants Will Be Allowed to Obtain Drivers Licenses – New York City

“Fulfilling a campaign promise, Gov. Eliot Spitzer announced today that residents will be able to apply for state driver’s licenses without regard to immigration status. Applicants for driver’s licenses will no longer be required to provide a Social Security number or show that they are eligible for one. Instead, they will be allowed to provide foreign passports, previous state driver’s licenses and “other valid and verifiable documents” to prove their identity.

Officials in New York estimate that there are tens of thousands of undocumented, unlicensed and uninsured drivers in New York. Mr. Spitzer announced the change along with new security measures that he said would make the licensing system more tamper-proof. Currently, eight other states ”” Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington ”” do not require drivers to prove legal status in order to obtain a license, according to the Spitzer administration.”

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