Assembly Minority Leader Jim Tedisco (R,C,I-Schenectady, Saratoga) today said that the Assembly should vote on legislation to block Gov. Eliot Spitzer's plan to allow illegal aliens to obtain New York driver licenses, when it reconvenes during the week of October 22nd.

"The Governor's ill advised plan presents a clear and present danger to the safety and security of our state and nation," said Tedisco. "I am calling on the Speaker to put this urgent national security matter at the top of our agenda when the Assembly reconvenes so we see where all 150 elected Assembly members sit on the issue."

Tedisco also is calling on Spitzer and the state Department of Motor Vehicles to immediately release a presentation, as his office has requested, on the implementation of the Governor's illegal alien license plan which was made on September 20th to members of the New York State Association of County Clerks.

Tedisco's office contacted the Office of the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles to seek a copy of the presentation, but was told that they "were not authorized to release it." A number of county clerks also were refused a copy of the public document when they requested it last week.

"It's ludicrous that the DMV will not release a presentation that they gave to dozens of elected officials," said Tedisco. "It seems that it's going to be easier for an illegal alien to get a driver's license than for an American citizen to get a public document which they are lawfully entitled to."

Tedisco plans on introducing legislation later this week to prevent this policy change from happening.

Spitzer's administrative policy change creates a dangerous loophole in state DMV regulations, allowing illegal aliens and potential terrorists the opportunity to apply for state driver licenses without regard to their citizenship status.

The Federal Real ID Act and the proposed federal regulations to implement it require states to meet certain minimum security standards in order for state driver licenses to be acceptable. Requirements include that an applicant produce evidence of a valid SSN or proof of ineligibility. The only foreign documentation that would be accepted would be a foreign passport with a valid, current US Visa. The federal standards were developed to protect against identity fraud and to protect our national security. Many of the foreign terrorists involved in the attack on our nation on September 11, 2001 used false information to obtain driver licenses that allowed them to move about our country freely and to rent vehicles and board aircraft used in the plot against us.