Identifying Immigrants

The proposal seemed sensible enough: grant driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants to ensure the safety of state roads and provide security officials with a means to track residents who otherwise live in the shadows. Similar laws are already in place in seven other states. Yet New York’s Governor Eliot Spitzer’s license proposal was quickly scuttled last month after a wave of criticism from both Republicans and Democrats, who argued the plan would provide an opening for terrorists. Hillary Clinton, a presidential hopeful, eventually disavowed the proposal after waffling on the issue at a presidential debate.

“The idea was right, the timing was wrong,” said Charles B. Rangel of New York. Perhaps he is right: the still-raw memory of Sept. 11, coupled with the country’s polarization over immigration, may have doomed the plan from the start. Yet there seemed to be another dynamic at work as well, one that taps into the fundamental problem at the root of our immigration crisis. There are reportedly 12 million undocumented immigrants in this country. They clean our offices, pick our produce and care for our children. Yet for many people they remain merely statistics. By granting them licenses, we would be offering them recognition, literally giving them faces and names. Critics argue that “illegal immigrants” deserve no such legal validation, but they offer no practical alternative for dealing with the millions of undocumented workers in our midst. The demise of Governor Spitzer’s proposal makes it highly unlikely that another lawmaker will take up the issue, especially in an election year. So millions of immigrants will remain anonymous, making it that much easier for us to ignore their existence.

Violence Against Women

Violence against women has reached crisis proportions. The This article appears in December 10 2007.