New York, NY —

NEW YORK, NY November 14, 2007 —Immigrants advocates are staying away from directly criticizing Governor Eliot Spitzer after he backed out of a plan to license undocumented immigrants. WNYC's Cindy Rodriguez reports.

Several immigrant groups have spent more than 3 years rallying around this issue and when the governor first announced his plan to license those here illegally - they were ecstatic. But the backlash against the new policy was intense, and poll after poll indicated that the broader public opposed it.

When Spitzer announced a compromise that included a special, limited ID for the undocumented, groups shunned it. Now that the plan has been dropped altogether, they are not blaming Spitzer for the policy failure. Like the governor, the groups are pushing for national immigration reform and say it was "fear mongering and political pandering" that brought the plan down.

State senate Republicans are still angry with the governor for not consulting them before putting the plan forward. For WNYC, I'm Cindy Rodriguez.