Eighteen States Introduce Driver’s License Bills In 2004; Two States Reject Restrictive Bills

IMMIGRANTS & PUBLIC BENEFITS

Driver's Licenses

EIGHTEEN STATES INTRODUCE DRIVER’S LICENSE BILLS IN 2004; TWO STATES REJECT RESTRICTIVE BILLS
Immigrants' Rights Update, Vol. 18, No. 1, February 17, 2004

So far during the 2004 state legislative sessions, at least 38 bills have been introduced in 18 different states that address immigrants’ ability to obtain a driver’s license. As in previous years, the proposals regarding driver’s licenses are broadly diverse: some bills would expand immigrants’ eligibility for licenses, and others would restrict immigrants’ ability to obtain them. Also as in previous years, restrictive bills outnumber those that would expand immigrants’ access to licenses. However, four of the restrictive bills have already been rejected.

The more generous proposals include allowing students to obtain a driver’s license, regardless of their immigration status; eliminating requirements that applicants be lawfully present in the U.S. in order to qualify for receiving a license; allowing applicants who do not have a Social Security number (SSN) to submit an affidavit to that effect; and expanding the list of documents that can be used to prove identity. Ten states currently allow immigrants to obtain a driver’s license regardless of their immigration status, and 44 states either do not have an SSN requirement or have an exception to the requirement.

Generally, most of the restrictive bills have been introduced in states that already have a lawful presence requirement, and the bills seek to place further limits on immigrants’ ability to obtain licenses. Examples of restrictive bills include preventing a state from accepting, as proof of identity, a driver’s license from a jurisdiction that doesn’t have a lawful presence requirement; requiring that an immigrant’s driver’s license expire with his or her immigration status; including some type of notation on the driver’s license indicating that the bearer is a non–U.S. citizen; and prohibiting the acceptance of foreign documents (including passports) as proof of identity. Although proposals such as these have been introduced in previous years, very few have become law. In fact, of the 66 restrictive bills introduced in 2003, only 7 became law.

Two states, Utah and Maryland, have already rejected restrictive bills this year. Legislators in Utah had to deal with two bills that would have overturned a 1999 law that allows state residents, regardless of their immigration status, to obtain a license. In Maryland, legislators rejected two bills, both of which would have imposed a lawful presence prerequisite for obtaining a license.

More detail on driver’s license bills introduced in 2004, as well as a link to a toolkit created for advocates interested in organizing driver’s license campaigns in their states, is available on NILC’s website: http://www.nilc.org.