Spitzer’s Proposal

Spitzer said licensing workers who did not have Social Security numbers, which New York had done in the past, would have aided law enforcement and would have made the state's streets safer and more secure.
Spitzer’s earlier plan to grant a single type of license to both legal residents and illegal immigrants worked out in concert with the Department of Homeland Security was met with criticism from both sides.

Spitzer's revised plan calls for a system in which three licenses will be available to New York residents.

One type of license, which would be available to legal residents, would conform to the Real ID Act of 2005, a controversial federal standard designed to tighten homeland security by making it more difficult for illegal immigrants to get state driver's licenses. This license would be sufficient identification for residents who want to fly domestically. Critics, among them the ACLU, contend that compliance with the Act "would turn state driver's licenses into a national ID card." Fourteen states have refused to comply over potential cost and privacy implications.

A second type of license would allow residents to cross the border between Canada and the United States without a passport.

The third, which would be available to illegal immigrants, would be used solely for driving and identification, and would allow those who hold it to get auto insurance.