Bloomberg comes out against Spitzer’s latest driver's license scheme

Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York came out against Governor Eliot Spitzer’s latest driver’s license plan, saying, “I still don’t think that it is where we should be.” His statements appeared to be a blow to the Spitzer administration, which had cited the mayor’s initially supportive remarks on Saturday, when the governor’s new plan was announced. The mayor had opposed the original plan announced by the governor in late September, a plan which would have allowed illegal immigrants to apply for the same licenses as everyone else. The mayor’s opposition to the governor’s original plan led the governor to describe the mayor as “factually wrong, legally wrong, morally wrong, ethically wrong” for his opposition. On Saturday the governor announced that he had worked out a deal with DHS to start offering three kinds of licenses by next year — including one marked “not for federal purposes” for illegal immigrants. This license could not be used to board planes, for example.

The mayor said in a statement issued shortly after the deal became public that he was “encouraged” by the announcement, adding that it was “a clear step in the right direction and some of the major issues we have raised are being addressed to our satisfaction.” At the same time, he said his administration had “just begun to review the details.” The review has led to an evolution in his views, so that when he was asked, in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, whether illegal immigrants should have licenses, he answered: “I do not believe they should,” adding that he found Governor Spitzer’s latest plan still flawed. “The bottom line is we should be giving driver’s licenses to people knowing who they are and making sure that they have a right to have them, and we should make sure particularly when it comes to guns that you can only use a secure driver’s license to buy guns,” he said. Christine Anderson, a spokeswoman for the governor, said, “I don’t see what the mayor said as being inconsistent with what he said over the weekend.” She added that the mayor had expressed satisfaction that the state was moving “further into compliance” with new federal license standards.