New Tennessee Law Creates “Driving Certificate” For Most Noncitizens

IMMIGRANTS & PUBLIC BENEFITS

Driver's Licenses

New Tennessee law creates “driving certificate” for most noncitizens
Immigrants' Rights Update, Vol. 18, No. 5, August 9, 2004

Tennessee has enacted a law that restricts driver’s license eligibility to U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, refugees, parolees, and asylees. All other applicants, regardless of their immigration status, are now eligible for a “certificate for driving” that on its face bears the notation (in red lettering on a white background): “for driving purposes only. not valid for identification.” The new law took effect May 29, 2004.

Before the new law took effect, all applicants, regardless of their immigration status, were eligible for a driver’s license if they could provide documentation of their identity and their residence in Tennessee. Claims that the former law compromised state and national security forced the new compromise between supporters and opponents of the former law.

In late June, the Tennessee Dept. of Safety and the Tennessee Office of Homeland Security sent a letter to the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police stating that the certificate is not a valid form of identification. The response to the letter has been varied, with the Nashville Police Dept. and Tennessee Highway Patrol stating that their officers will accept the certificate as ID from those whom officers stop for traffic violations, and the Memphis Police Dept. stating that its officers will not accept the certificate as ID. Still other jurisdictions have yet to take a position on the issue, so drivers may be subject to different enforcement policies as they cross county and city lines. Advocates fear that immigrants will not apply for the new certificate because of this uncertainty.

Advocates are also concerned that the certificate, which identifies the bearer as an immigrant, will lead to discrimination. To track this issue, the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) has created a complaint form and hotline that is available in five different languages. For more information and updates on the new law, see the TIRRC website at http://www.tnimmigrant.org/TN_Coalition/DL_Info_Page.htm.

The new law also has prompted a class action lawsuit, which was filed by the League of Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and several Tennessee residents against the state’s governor, the commissioner of the Tennessee Dept. of Safety (TDOS), and two of the TDOS’s employees. (For more on this lawsuit, see “Class Action Filed against Tennessee’s ‘Certificate for Driving’ Law; DL-Related Litigation Pending in Other States,” p. 6 of this issue.)