As part of former Governor Spitzer’s plan to distribute driver’s licenses to undocumented residents in New York, the State Department of Motor Vehicles issued 23,000 permanent driver’s licenses to foreign visitors who were in the United States legally but on a temporary basis. These licenses did not contain a “Temporary Visitor” stamp, in contravention to standard licensing practices. The DMV took this administrative action, yet the dangerous plan was never vetted through the legislature. 

A public hearing will be conducted on October 16th in Manhattan to assess what can be done at the local, state, and Federal level to secure these 23,000 licenses. 

PANEL:  Rensselaer County Clerk Frank Merola, State Assemblyman Greg Ball                               

ENTERING TESTIMONY:  Peter Gadiel, President of 9/11 Families for a Secure America; T.J. Bonner, Chairman of the National Council of Border Patrol Agents; R.P. Eddy, Director of the Manhattan Institute’s Center for Policing Terrorism; Deputy County Clerk William Film, head of Rensselaer County DMV; Dr. Joseph Skelly, Senior Fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies; Ed Kowalski, Director of 9/11 Families for a Secure America; Susan Tully, National Field Director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform; Dr. Stephen Steinlight, Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies; Brian Zimmer, Director of the Coalition for a Secure Driver’s License; Pennsylvania State Representative Daryl Metcalfe, National Chairman of State Legislators for Legal Immigration; Invited Guests: John Hilliard, ex-Senior Advisor for the REAL ID Program Office at the Department of Homeland Security & former Deputy Commissioner of NYS DMV for Licensing; Richard E. Jackson, former Commissioner of NYS DMV 

WHEN:  THURSDAY October 16, 2008
10 A.M. - 2 P.M.

WHERE:  Metropolitan Club
122 E. 83rd St.
New York, NY 10028                                               

CONTACT:  Event Coordinator, (845) 582-0112 

***ALL MEDIA INVITED & ENCOURAGED TO ATTEND***