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FORMER INSPECTOR GENERAL OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY AND DIRECTOR OF THE HOMELAND SECURITY PROGRAM AT THE ASPEN INSTITUTE PRAISES GOVERNOR SPITZER’S COMPREHENSIVE LICENSE SYSTEM

Governor Eliot Spitzer today announced that Clark Kent Ervin, the first Inspector General of the U.S. Department of and current Director of the Homeland Security Program at the Aspen Institute, said the Governor's actions were "guided by reason and reality" and described New York's driver's license plan as practical and effective to “protect the safety and security” of all New Yorkers.

"Ervin’s extensive experience with homeland security issues at DHS and the Aspen Institute means he understands the challenge of having millions of undocumented immigrants in the shadows and outside of law enforcement databases," said Governor Spitzer. "By bringing people out of the shadows and into the system, and by tying this effort to the strictest anti-fraud security measures in the nation, we will vastly enhance the safety and security of all New Yorkers."

The following is the text of Clark Ervin’s full statement:

"Approximately 12 million illegal immigrants currently reside in the United States. Absent federal leadership to enforce our immigration laws, those immigrants will remain here; more are likely to come; and those who can and wish to drive will do so either without a license or they will acquire one by using fraudulent documentation. Governor Spitzer’s license plan addresses this reality while meeting his duty to protect the safety and security of the residents in his state.

Due to federal inaction, our state and local law enforcement agencies have next to no information on the millions of illegal immigrants in our country. This is an unacceptable security vulnerability for New York and the nation. Governor Spitzer’s plan will bring undocumented immigrants out of the shadows and into the Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) system. We know that after 9/11 states' DMV databases, which contain names, addresses, photographs and driving records, proved invaluable in identifying who the hijackers were and connecting that information to other data that led to a more complete profile of them. Even better than identifying terrorists after the fact, such comprehensive information can even help to prevent attacks.

New York’s plan mandates that undocumented immigrants desiring a license present a current and valid foreign passport, a tool designed to prevent fraud in the system. In fact, the documentation that the Governor’s plan requires will be more useful for security purposes than Social Security numbers. Illegal immigrants would have to submit six points of identification, including a foreign passport with photo identification that would be verified by trained staff and state-of-the-art scanning machines. Photo comparison technology would be used to ensure that applicants could not get multiple licenses. Not incidentally, the license available to illegal aliens could not be used to board a plane or enter a federal building.

Absent federal action, states have no choice but to deal with the realities of illegal immigration. Governor Spitzer is right to be guided by reason and reality rather than emotion. It might make some feel good to deny driver's licenses to those here illegally. But such a policy will do little, if anything, to protect the security of a state’s residents, and may in fact make the already difficult job of identifying terrorists even harder."

Ervin's statement follows several recent national security endorsements of the Governor's DMV policy by former New York City Police Department Commissioner and current Police Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department William J. Bratton, leading counter-terrorism and national security expert Richard A. Clarke, and former 9/11 Commission member and former Republican Senator of Washington State Slade Gorton. Department of Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff also called DMV’s recent announcement “a major step forward for security, both for New York and for the country” and said that under the Governor’s plan, New York’s licenses would be “among the most secure in the country.”

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Before directing the Aspen Institute’s Homeland Security program, Ervin served as the first Inspector General of the United States Department of Homeland Security, from January, 2003 to December, 2004. Prior to his service at DHS, he served as the Inspector General of the United States Department of State, from August 2001 to January 2003. His service in the George W. Bush Administration is preceded by his service as the Associate Director of Policy in the White House Office of National Service in the George H.W. Bush Administration.