Maryland task force issues report on driver’s licenses
Immigrants' Rights Update, Vol. 18, No. 8, December 22, 2004

A task force created by authorization of the Maryland legislature recently submitted a report recommending that the state Motor Vehicles Administration (MVA) revise some of its procedures and regulations, but that the Maryland General Assembly not pass new laws regarding the documentation that driver’s license and ID applicants must present to the MVA.  The legislature had charged the task force with the task of studying, among other things, what documents the MVA should accept as proof of license applicants’ identification and the feasibility of establishing procedures for reviewing foreign documents.

Under Maryland law, immigrants who reside in the state may obtain a Maryland driver’s license regardless of whether they have lawful immigration status.  Existing regulations deem certain documents issued by foreign governments to be acceptable proof of identity from persons applying for a license.  However, despite these regulations, after Sept. 11, 2001, the MVA stopped accepting foreign documents as proof of identity, which made it impossible for most undocumented immigrant residents of Maryland to obtain licenses. 

To clarify the MVA’s authority to prohibit undocumented immigrants from obtaining licenses, a Maryland legislator asked the state’s attorney general for an opinion.  The attorney general issued an opinion in 2003 which clarified that the MVA could not deny applicants licenses based on their immigration status.  In response, in Feb. 2004 the MVA implemented an “exceptions process” whereby foreign documents are acceptable if they are reviewed by a senior document examiner and are found to be on the list of documents the regulations say are acceptable.  However, this policy has not been widely publicized.

In 2003, a bill was introduced in the legislature whose intent was to clarify that undocumented residents of Maryland are eligible for driver’s licenses, but the bill was amended to create a task force instead.  The task force was charged with studying driver’s license documentation, fraud, terrorist watch list developments and possible use, biometric developments and possible use, and uninsured and unlicensed driver’s data.  The task force was comprised of representatives of the MVA, the state police, the state Dept. of Homeland Security, and others appointed by the governor.

While the task force voted to recommend against legislative changes, the task force’s majority report, which actually was written by the MVA and submitted to the legislature on Dec. 1, 2004, has been criticized by some task force members as being misleading, inaccurate, and the result of a flawed and biased process.  These members issued a minority report, which recommends that the MVA follow its current regulations as written and also recommends against legislative changes.  Immigrants’ rights advocates charge that the MVA report ignored important testimony and evidence that was presented to the task force. 

The majority report recommends that the MVA accept only identity documents that have been “validated” by a federal, state, or local government, although it also recommends that certified school records be accepted.  In addition, it recommends that certain types of expired identity documents be accepted, such as expired U.S. immigration documents.  The task force specifically rejected placing a limit on when otherwise acceptable identity documents can be accepted as proof of an applicant’s identity.  In addition, the majority report recommends a multi-layered appeals process, including judicial review, that would allow the consideration of other identity documents.  This presumably would give an undocumented immigrant the opportunity to establish that foreign identity documents he or she wants to present are reliable.

It is expected that the MVA will now seek to amend its regulations in accordance with the recommendations of the majority report and will use that report as justification for the amendments.

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