NEW YORK (AFP) — New York governor Eliot Spitzer Tuesday dropped his campaign to offer driving licenses to illegal immigrants, a plan which had wedged into the 2008 presidential campaign.
Charging the federal government had "lost control of its borders," Spitzer told reporters he had surrendered his effort to provide the licenses, which are tantamount to national identity cards, amid fierce opposition from conservatives.
"I've concluded New York State cannot successfully address this problem on its own. I am announcing today I am withdrawing my proposal," he told reporters.
Spitzer said the federal government had "allowed millions of undocumented immigrants to enter our country and now has no solution to deal with it."
"When the federal government abdicates its responsibilities, states, cities, towns and villages still have to deal with the practical reality of that failure. And we face that reality every day in our schools, in our hospitals, and on our roads," he said.
But his plan to offer three tiers of drivers' licenses, which in the absense of a national identity card are often used to board planes and cross borders, could not be sustained.
"I am not willing to fight to the bitter end on something that will not ultimately be implemented," Spitzer told The New York Times in an interview published Wednesday.
Spitzer's plan had come under fire from several quarters, including the US Department of Homeland Security and became an issue in the 2008 presidential campaign.
White House hopeful and New York Senator Hillary Clinton took flak for an apparent flip-flop on the issue.
The plans Spitzer unveiled earlier this year were meant to increase road safety while providing documentation to the estimated one million people in New York state illegally.
The proposals are part of a wider debate on what the United States should do about its estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, accused by some of stealing jobs and being a drain on health care and welfare systems.
New York's plan would have offered three levels of driver's licenses from next year.
Among them would have been be a license to which illegal immigrants would be entitled, but which could not be used to board flights or cross borders.
Opponents slammed Democratic front-runner Clinton over the issue during a debate earlier this month when she offered apparently contradictory answers on whether she supported Spitzer's plan.
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