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Argument: Offering drivers licenses to illegal aliens will improve national security

Issue Report: Drivers licenses for Illegal immigrants in the US

Supporting quotes

  • Governor Eliot Spitzer said in January 2007[1] – “The facts show that restricting immigrants’ access to drivers’ licenses does nothing to improve security. All it does is drive immigrants into the shadows, creating a class of people with no public records”.
  • “Will Giving Illegal Immigrants Driver’s Licenses Improve Security?”. NYTimes. October 9, 2007 – “Opponents have been criticizing Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s plan to allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses on security grounds, saying the move would shield undocumented immigrants from scrutiny. But as Nicholas Confessore and Danny Hakim report, some terrorism and security experts support the decision, saying it will help bring a hidden population into the open and ultimately make the system more secure, not to mention getting more drivers on the road licensed and insured.”…
Those who supplied documentation will likely remain unknown because the information they submitted will be bogus. And those who did not bother to apply will remain completely in the shadows.
Because of the risk of being caught and deported, the number in the latter category is likelier to be far higher than in that in the former.
One of the many lessons of 9/11 is that the more information we have on terrorists, the better. Spitzer’s plan would result in our gaining more information because it would encourage illegal immigrants to apply for driver’s licenses, and to do so in their own names with bona fide documentation.”
  • Center for Advanced Studies in Science and Technology Policy – “Contrary to the argument made by its supporters that denying illegal aliens licenses would prevent terrorists from ‘melting’ into society, this legislation would guarantee a larger haystack in which terrorists can hide thus making it more difficult for law enforcement to identify them. Counter-terrorism strategy is based on reducing the suspect population so that security resources can be focused on more likely suspects. Denying identity legitimacy to 13 million illegal aliens — the vast majority of whom are not terrorists or otherwise threats to national security — just increases the size of the suspect pool for law enforcement to have to sort through. Since law enforcement resources are already unable to effectively cope with the large illegal alien population why further complicate their task?”

Terrorists can already exist "legally" in the United States

It is currently very easy to create fake driver's licenses

It is currently very easy fake a driver’s license. It is, therefore, already very easy for terrorists to use such fake driver’s licenses to, for example, get onto an airplane. This fact simply highlights how vulnerable the security apparatus is already in regards to driver’s licenses. This is meant only to lower the expectations of what driver’s licenses are actually achieving in terms of added security. Because they are not adding substantially to our security in the above ways, it should not be of substantial concern to our security to offer driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.