Gov. Eliot Spitzer has decided to let illegal aliens have drivers licenses, per New York Legal Update.  This feeds into one of the most hotly debated, and angrily disputed, areas around New York.  When it comes to undocumented aliens, the nice name, there is a huge division amongst otherwise good people.  There are a lot of people who truly hate illegals and see any concession to their existence as a precursor to the downfall of civilization.

They have a point.  As waves of illegals flood a geographic area, and they do tend to come in waves where they group together in a ghetto-like fashion, the impact on every aspect of quality of life is pervasive.  When it began to happen in a downtown area close to where I lived some years ago, with Salvadorians hanging out on the street until the wee hours of the night, urinating as needed and commenting in inappropriate ways to women passing by, there was a call for blood.

Mind you, I have no idea whether these people were totally legal emigres or illegal aliens, but it’s so much easier to characterize them all as illegals when you want to focus your anger at them.  The one clear point was that they were culturally different, and that their culture conflicted with that of the people who lived there happily (?) before they arrived.  And so they are angry.  Very angry.

There aren’t many advocacy groups with political clout standing up for undocumented aliens.  Like criminal defendants, they serve a much better purpose as the butt of political grandstanding.  So why then has Gov. Spitzer decided to become their champion? 

Because there are interest groups with a whole lotta clout standing up for the rights of insurance companies.  By products of undocumented aliens, and the push to keep them further underground by denying them legal recognition, is the inability to legally own and operate a car.  Here’s one fact nobody can dispute:  There’s no way to survive without a car around here.  So if you can’t own and operate one legally, then you do so illegally. 

Aha, say the illegal haters.  Yet more criminal conduct.  Another reason to hunt them down and shoot deport them.  Perhaps, but in the meantime, we have a more personal (meaning, touching our lives) problem.  We do not want them behind the wheel of a 2000 pound weapon if they can’t handle it or can’t understand the rules of our road.  We do not want them to drive without insurance.  Not because we feel kindly toward them, but for self-preservation. 

If undocumented aliens can lawfully obtain a license, we gain a few benefits.  First, they are tested to make sure they have the basic skills needed to drive.  You might think this is trivial, but being a keen observer of driving technique, this is a real concern.  Granted, it is a very low bar, but I’ll take whatever i can get.

Second, if an accident happens (as they invariably do), whether someone is injured or just some fender bender, there will be a better chance of compensation.  As with driving skills, this is hardly a perfect cure since they remain undocumented and generally like to hide under the radar regardless of whether they have insurance.  Plus, there has long been a misunderstanding of how insurance works, exactly, so that they pay for the initial binder to get the car registered, then never pay the premiums after that since they see no point in throwing hard earned money after pointless insurance.  I’ve had the discussion many times with clients, who never understood the concept.

Third, there is a much greater likelihood that undocumented aliens will not flee when something goes wrong, whether it is an accident or a pursuing cop.  Another discussion that I’ve had with clients for years is how they flee from the police, not because of whatever thing happened in the cops mind, but because they are undocumented and fear deportation.  Half the time they have no clue why the cop is after them; they just know that they don’t want to get caught.

Is Gov. Spitzer a leader in the forefront of sound immigration police?  I don’t know that we can go that far, but I’m willing to bet that he hears the Insurance lobby loud and clear.  There will no doubt be the backlash that Spitzer will make New York a haven for illegals with his ultra-liberal policies.  What’s next, 40 acres and a mule?  Perhaps they will flock to New York from around the country seeking a drivers license.  But until we figure out a better way to deal with undocumented aliens, and since we desperately need to have a group that good old boys can spit at whenever they don’t win the lottery and have run out of beer, or well-groomed suburban homeowners when their lawn needs trimming and they just had their nails done, it’s a start.