Newsday reports that New York is about to adopt a three-tier driver’s license scheme, the lowest tier of which virtually identifies the holder as being in the United States illegally:

The Bush administration and New York cut a deal Saturday to create a new generation of super-secure driver’s licenses for U.S. citizens, but also allow illegal immigrants to get a version…The deal comes about one month after New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer announced a plan whereby illegal immigrants with a valid foreign passport could obtain a license. Saturday’s agreement with the Homeland Security Department will create a three-tier license system in New York…

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said he was not happy that New York intended to issue IDs to illegal immigrants. But he said there was nothing he could do to stop it. “I don’t endorse giving licenses to people who are not here legally, but federal law does allow states to make that choice,” Chertoff said. “It’s going to be a big deal up in Buffalo, it’s going to be a big deal on the Canadian side of the border,” Chertoff said. The governor made clear he is going forward with his plan allowing licenses for illegal immigrants…

Under the compromise, New York will produce an “enhanced driver’s license” that will be as secure as a passport. It is intended for people who soon will need to meet such ID requirements, even for a short drive to Canada. A second version of the license will meet new federal standards of the Real ID Act. That law is designed to make it much harder for illegal immigrants or would-be terrorists to obtain licenses. A third type of license will be available to undocumented immigrants. Spitzer has said this ID will make the state more secure by bringing those people “out of the shadows” and into American society, and will lower auto insurance rates.

Those licenses will be clearly marked to show they are not valid federal ID. Officials, however, would not say whether that meant local law enforcement could use such a license as probable cause to detain someone they suspected of being in the U.S. illegally.

Perhaps we’re missing something, but this sounds even zanier than Spitzer’s first harebrained scheme to “allow illegal immigrants to obtain the same kind of driver’s licenses as other New Yorkers.” The new third-tier driver’s license would appear to specifically identify the holder as a person in the United States illegally.

Therefore, the likely outcomes are that (a) illegal aliens will not apply for the license; and (b) advocacy groups will file suit and take other measures to ensure that a card that screams that the holder is a lawbreaker must be ignored by authorities. Is that an intended or unintended consequence of this nutty scheme?

UPDATE

Here is a discussion of the New York proposal by a leading presidential candidate that is every bit as coherent as the Spitzer plan:

Good luck understanding this mess.

UPDATE II

That was fast. Now everything is clear, less than a day later, or is it? NYT:

Mrs. Clinton’s statement affirming her support of Mr. Spitzer in his office came less than a day after she offered a muddled and hesitant position on the bill, prompting a round of denunciations by her opponents. It signaled the extent to which her advisers viewed that moment as the biggest misstep she made in the debate, and one with long-term potential to undermine her candidacy.

“Senator Clinton supports governors like Governor Spitzer who believe they need such a measure to deal with the crisis caused by this administration’s failure to pass comprehensive immigration reform,’” her campaign said…

Mrs. Clinton’s advisers said that she had not studied either plan, and was not specifically endorsing either of them.

Addendum: Polipundit asks a question.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 28th, 2007 at 11:50 am and is filed under Democrats, General, Law, Republicans, idiots!, radical chic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.