CHENANGO COUNTY – While 29 county clerks from across the state are strongly opposing Governor Eliot Spitzer’s push to license immigrants without Social Security numbers, Chenango’s clerk says it’s too early to weigh-in on the still-developing plan that many claim will arm illegal aliens and terrorists.

“I’m not opposed. I’m not for it,” said county clerk Mary Weidman. “It’s still too early to tell.”

The first phase targets legal New York residents who have previously held driver’s licenses but lost them due to Social Security number issues. However, the hotly-debated second phase, which is still in development, removes restrictions that prevented illegals from getting licenses in the past, but it’s unclear if that’s who’s being targeted, considering Spitzer is still seeking to make state residency a requirement for all new applicants.

Regardless, Weidman says neither she, nor any other clerk, are in a position to challenge policies handed down from the Department of Motor Vehicles.

“We’re not policy makers, we’re agents of the DMV,” said Weidman. “Regardless of my personal feelings, I’m legally committed to be an agent of the DMV.”

Implimenting the plan should not be a problem, since their function will only be to gather information, Weidman says, adding that decisions on the new licenses will be made in Albany.

Spitzer has reversed a 1995 DMV law created under then governor George Pataki that says applicants for a driver’s license have to provide a valid Social Security number. Pataki’s law prevented illegal immigrants from getting licenses, but also deterred legal immigrants – of all backgrounds – from renewing theirs, which required them to go through a federal procedures to prove they were U.S. citizens that are “ineligible” for a Social Security number, Spitzer claims.

Pataki’s policy was meant as a tool to track dead-beat moms and dads who failed to pay child support, Spitzer says.

The governor claims his new policy will make the roads safer, strengthen anti-fraud measures, and increase overall security.

Critics of the measure, most of them Republican, say illegal immigrants and terrorists will abuse Spitzer’s system to falsify their identities and gain a stronger foothold in the state.

Based on her interpretation of information and guidelines provided by the DMV, Weidman says the claims that illegals and terrorists will have free reign are political scare tactics.

“The response has been very rash at this point,” she said. “It’s very politicized.”

Weidman says applicants will still have to provide valid passports and 14 proofs of identity, rather than the normal six. She added that plans for state-run photo verification systems and legal residency requirements are still being worked out.

The second phase of the plan, which will begin roughly mid-year 2008, will open up the process to new license applicants, and it is still unclear if illegal immigrants will be eligible for a license.