New York, NY—September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows strongly disagree with certain New York lawmakers who have been equating immigrants with terrorists in an attempt to undermine the recent decision by Governor Spitzer to expand immigrant access to driver’s licenses.
Make no mistake – immense grief is still being experienced six years later by those of us who lived through the violent loss of a loved one on 9/11. It is very easy to turn that grief into hatred for groups of people who are not like us. Statements equating Governor Spitzer’s decision with “assisting” Osama Bin Laden are wrong, hurtful, irresponsible, and they propagate a climate of racism towards immigrants
We all want to be safe. The broadening of government-issued driver’s licenses protects our safety by ensuring that people are competent to drive and held responsible for infractions of the law. Limiting such licensing would make us less secure on the roads, and force hundreds of thousands of immigrants into the shadows while doing nothing to stamp out terrorism.
We are offended by anyone who has tried to manipulate the memories of those we lost on September 11th by issuing statements to exploit the tragic events of 9/11 and use those events for political gain. We ask that they apologize for their statements.
