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Aliens Rush to Get IDs NewsMax.com WiresMIAMI – The ease with which the leader of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks got a Florida driver's license has led to stricter requirements and long, unruly lines at license offices formed by non-citizens trying to beat the deadline. The new restrictions went into effect abruptly Thursday, but that didn't stop immigrants from trying to beat the deadline. Officials moved up the date because of a sharp increase in applications for driver's licenses by immigrants. "We realized if we waited any longer, hundreds more old-style licenses would be issued," said Sandra Lambert, director of the driver's license division at the state Department of Highway and Motor Vehicles. In the rush Thursday, Florida Highway Patrol troopers had to be called out in south Florida for crowd control. "They were angry because they couldn't get a license on the spot," Lambert said. The new regulations designate 10 locations in the state, four of them in south Florida, where immigrants can get driver's licenses. The new restrictions cover non-citizens who hold permanent residency "green cards." When they apply for new licenses, they will get 30-day permits while their identification documents are checked. If they are cleared, they will be mailed licenses that expire at the same time as their visas. The rules were changed when it was learned that Mohammed Atta, a terrorist leader, had little trouble getting a license that he presumably used as a picture identification to get on the airplane that he crashed into the World Trade Center in New York. Atta was refused at one driver's license office in Venice, Fla., but he tried again at Lauderdale Lakes, Fla. Officials there called Venice to try to find out why he was turned down, but when there was no answer, they gave him one anyway. Ahmed Al Haznawi also got a license at the Lauderdale Lakes office just four days before he helped hijack a plane that crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. Records of the transactions were released by the state this week. Copyright 2001 by United Press International. All rights reserved.
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