After a contentious fight in the New York State Senate, Governor Andrew Cuomo has officially joined the growing ranks of politicians and state-level administrators who grant driver's licenses to illegal aliens. The "Green Light" law passed narrowly in Albany, and Cuomo signed the bill on Monday.

Thirteen states (plus the District of Columbia) now provide driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants. In theory, the IDs promote safer driving habits, as illegals are less likely to flee or evade an officer during a routine stop if they have some form of documentation.

The less publicized reason Democrats push for such licensing is that creating an initial form of legal identification--known colloquially as a "breeder document"--spawns other forms of legal identification for its bearer, lessening the chances of deportation. It's a de facto back door to citizenship.

Poll Position

The more illegals stay, the more likely they are to vote, and motivating that particular demographic has never been easier than it is right now. Lawbreakers beware: if you want to stay in the US, votar Demócrata. After all, every vote counts, even those which should not.

As the driver's license laws are made on the state level, there is no uniformity around matters such as eye tests or traffic law tests, let alone supervised driving tests. Moreover, the 13 states--CA, CO, CT, DE, DC, HI, IL, MD, NV, NM, NY, UT, VT, WA--are geographically scattered. To obtain an ID requires, at most, a short trip on a Greyhound bus. It should come as no surprise that most of the states listed above are liberal strongholds.

Ignoring the Will of Voters

The battle over the Green Light bill in New York exposed the lack of public support for granting licenses to illegals. In a New York Times article which painted the issue as suburbs versus sophisticates, even some Democrats recognized that supporting the bill could come back to haunt them, and Republican state senator John J. Flanagan went further:

"[Flanagan, the] Long Island lawmaker who leads the Republican minority, recently said that passing the bill would be a “colossal political mistake” for Democrats. Nick Langworthy, the incoming chairman of the state Republican Party, called the bill a product of the 'extreme left' that showed disdain for the rule of law...County clerks have again denounced the proposal, with some vowing to defy it if it becomes law, and county sheriffs have warned that it would constrain their ability to enforce traffic safety."

Time will tell if the Green Light law turns out to be a political liability, or just another loophole in our already inadequate and thwarted immigration laws.