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AILA Issue Paper: Restricting Immigrant Access to Driver's Licenses August 9, 2002 THE ISSUE: The U.S. Congress and state legislatures recently have begun considering measures to restrict immigrants' access to driver's licenses. These proposals go well beyond denying undocumented immigrants access to drivers' licenses and are likely to effect legal immigrants and even U.S. citizens. While intended to increase national security, these measures will not enhance our security but will interfere with effective law enforcement. BACKGROUND: The September 11 terrorist attacks have led to renewed calls for a national identification (ID) system. However, since national ID proposals have been defeated in the past, proponents are seeking to develop such a national system indirectly, through existing forms of ID such as state driver’s licenses. The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) is urging the federal government to fund and authorize a proposal to standardize state driver’s licenses. The AAMVA recently announced that it supports uniform standards for driver’s licenses across all fifty states. If implemented, uniform driver’s licenses would result in a de facto national ID card. Representative Jeff Flake (R-AZ) introduced H.R. 4043 in March of 2002. This measure would bar federal agencies from accepting for any identification-related purpose any state-issued driver’s license, or other comparable identification document, unless the state requires that such licenses or documents issued to nonimmigrant aliens expire upon the expiration of the aliens’ nonimmigrant visa. At the same time, some state officials have linked the denial of driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants to efforts to combat terrorism, alleging that the driver’s licenses that several of the terrorists obtained facilitated their activities. (However, the terrorists did not need U.S.-issued driver’s licenses to board planes on September 11 because they had foreign passports that would have enabled them to board.) Since September 11, many states are considering proposals to tighten the rules regarding driver’s license eligibility and to further restrict immigrants’ access to driver’s licenses. AILA’S POSITION: AILA opposes limiting immigrants’ access to driver’s licenses based on immigration status. Denying driver’s licenses to large segments of the population is an inefficient way to enforce immigration laws and prevent terrorism and would make everyone in the community less safe. Restrictive Licensing Will Impede Law Enforcement and National Security. Many local law enforcement officials oppose restrictive licensing proposals because driver’s license databases play an important role in enforcement. Restrictive proposals will undermine law enforcement because:
State Driver’s License Agencies Have Neither the Authorization nor
Knowledge to Interpret Immigration Laws and Documents.
Restrictive licensing will require state motor vehicle administrators to become
INS law and document experts in order to evaluate properly an applicant’s
immigration status and determine when such status expires. Immigration law
creates approximately 60 ever-changing nonimmigrant visa categories in addition
to classifications for asylees, refugees, parolees, persons in immigration
proceedings, persons under orders of supervision, and applicants for many of
these categories, as well as applicants for extension, change, or adjustment of
status, to name a few. The scheme of documents issued by the INS, the
State Department, and other agencies as evidence of these classifications is
even more perplexing and includes visa stamps, laminated cards, unlaminated
handwritten cards, forms, letters, and many other documents, either in
combination or alone, which, even to the trained eye, often do not clearly show
an applicant’s status or duration of lawful admission. Additionally, due
to extensive INS delays in application processing, many immigrants and lawful
nonimmigrants will be unable to present documentation of their status. It
is highly unlikely that motor vehicle administrators will be able to determine
correctly whether a particular document or combination of documents establishes
lawful status. This task requires the interpretation and application of a
complex body of law. Requiring DMV personnel to understand and enforce
immigration laws will most likely result in legal United States residents facing
wrongful license denials and revocations for reasons that are wholly unrelated
to driver competence.
Denying driver’s licenses based on immigration status also will prevent millions of drivers from obtaining insurance, which will increase uninsured motorist pools, contribute to current uninsured motorist losses of $4.1 billion, and increase insurance rates. Production and Sale of Falsified Documents is Likely to Increase if Larger Numbers of Noncitizens are Denied Drivers Licenses. Restrictive licensing will encourage the fraudulent production and use of the many documents that are available to establish lawful immigration status by transforming the driver’s license into a de facto INS document that will become necessary to establish lawful status. These fraudulent documents will further complicate the task of motor vehicle administrators by requiring them to detect fraudulent INS documents. Additionally, restrictive licensing will increase the market for easily obtained fraudulent documents, such as birth certificates and social security numbers, to establish identity. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, there are 14,000 different versions of birth certificates currently in circulation.
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