Sensible changes
New York is going to start allowing undocumented immigrants to get driver’s licenses with valid foreign passports. It’s about time. This makes sense because then you have less people living in the shadows. I’m surprised more states don’t see the plus side of this — insured, licensed immigrants on the road rather than untrained, unlicensed, uninsured immigrants driving (sometimes by their own country’s scary driving rules).
…[O]fficials pointed to a study showing that unlicensed drivers were almost five times more likely to be in fatal crashes than people with valid driver’s licenses. The State Department of Insurance estimates that the new rules will save New York drivers $120 million each year by reducing premium costs associated with uninsured motorists by 34 percent.
The change fulfilled a promise Mr. Spitzer made repeatedly last year in his campaign, and it was hailed by immigrant organizations and labor unions that had pushed hard for it. Those groups said that the regulations imposed by the Pataki administration had hurt about 250,000 immigrants who needed licenses to drive to work, to hospitals or to schools.
“Immigrant communities throughout the nation can take heart that today’s victory may begin to turn the tide toward sensible and humane reforms at the federal level,” said Chung-Wha Hong, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, an umbrella group for more than 150 immigrant self-help and advocacy organizations.
