Spitzer sputters

Well, Gov. Spitzer of New York has abandoned his three tier drivers licenses for illegal aliens. His surrender sounded like, “I was only trying to help, but if you don’t want it, FINE! Just FINE!”

Well, Mr. Governor, if you want to work on this ignored federal problem, how about banning sanctuary cities in your state? Get a load of this report from Heather MacDonald in City Journal for a little background on the problem (and a nice slam at Prez-candidate Rudy):

“Immigration politics have similarly harmed New York. Former mayor Rudolph Giuliani sued all the way up to the Supreme Court to defend the city’s sanctuary policy against a 1996 federal law decreeing that cities could not prohibit their employees from cooperating with the INS. Oh yeah? said Giuliani; just watch me. The INS, he claimed, with what turned out to be grotesque irony, only aims to “terrorize people.” Though he lost in court, he remained defiant to the end. On September 5, 2001, his handpicked charter-revision committee ruled that New York could still require that its employees keep immigration information confidential to preserve trust between immigrants and government. Six days later, several visa-overstayers participated in the most devastating attack on the city and the country in history.

“New York conveniently forgot the 1996 federal ban on sanctuary laws until a gang of five Mexicans—four of them illegal—abducted and brutally raped a 42-year-old mother of two near some railroad tracks in Queens. The NYPD had already arrested three of the illegal aliens numerous times for such crimes as assault, attempted robbery, criminal trespass, illegal gun possession, and drug offenses. The department had never notified the INS.

“Citizen outrage forced Mayor Michael Bloomberg to revisit the city’s sanctuary decree yet again. In May 2003, Bloomberg tweaked the policy minimally to allow city staffers to inquire into immigration status only if it is relevant to the awarding of a government benefit. Though Bloomberg’s new rule said nothing about reporting immigration violations to federal officials, advocates immediately claimed that it did allow such reporting, and the ethnic lobbies went ballistic. “What we’re seeing is the erosion of people’s rights,” thundered Angelo Falcon of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund. After three months of intense agitation by immigrant groups, Bloomberg replaced this innocuous “don’t ask” policy with a “don’t tell” rule even broader than Gotham’s original sanctuary policy. The new rule prohibits city employees from giving other government officials information not just about immigration status but about tax payments, sexual orientation, welfare status, and other matters.” (end of City Journal excerpt)

And the Big Apple is only one of TEN sanctuary cities in your state. Here’s the list:
Bay Shore, NY
Brentwood, NY
Central Islip, NY
Farmingville, NY
New York City, NY
Riverhead, NY
Shirly/Mastic, NY
Spring Valley Village, NY (Added 7-25-07)
Uniondale, NY
Westbury, NY

How about getting your AG to follow the program of New Jersey and order screening for all criminals in custody?

Or, what do you say about getting your state troopers deputized as immigration agents. Give a call down to Alabama and find out why they have 60 troopers trained as 287(g) officers.

Wanna help, Governor? Then do an honest study of the cost of illegal aliens in the state.

Or maybe a state law that forbids marriages unless the couple can prove lawful presence?

Or browse this website for over a thousand pieces of state legislation aimed at doing something about this problem:
http://www.ncsl.org/programs/immig/2007Immigration831.htm

And give a call up to Albany. If Hillary isn’t on the campaign trail, maybe she can help you get something done about this problem.

But we’ve all had enough of state and local leaders simply wringing their hands and pointing to Washington. There’s plenty of support for governors taking some sort of action; you just picked the wrong approach.